1/11/2016 0 Comments Are You Pulling my Leg?Salutations mes chéris!
This week was totally awesome! But, I still have quite a bit to tell you about last week since my iPad died on me haha. So I will start with that! We had the coolest miracle last week after I emailed! My companion and I were porting when we knocked on the door of a Muslim woman and she let us sing Christmas songs to her family! We figured that we were justified in singing Christmas carols because after all, it wasn't the new year yet... plus, it's so cold here, it might as well be Christmas all the time!:)...Anyways, she loved it! We ending up having a very interesting religious discussion on her doorstep, which consisted mostly of her teaching us about her religion and reciting passages from the Koran haha. But hey, it was a religious conversation nonetheless! :) IN FRANCE! The best part is, when she was done teaching us, she asked us about The Book of Mormon and she asked us for one! She said she was really curious to learn more, then she made an interesting proposition... She promised to read it if we promised the read the Koran! Haha, DEAL! ;) If that's what it takes, I'll do it! The Book of Mormon has blessed my life so much; I would give anything for everyone to be able to have even a taste of the joy that comes when you read The Book of Mormon. Which reminds me of one of my favorite chapters in the Book of Mormon... the prophet Lehi is explaining the vision that he had of the tree of life, which symbolizes everlasting life and love of our dear Father in Heaven. In 1 Nephi 8:12 he says, "And as I partook of the fruit thereof it filled my soul with exceedingly great joy; wherefore, I began to be desirous that my family should partake of it also; for I knew that it was desirable above all other fruit." I love this because when Lehi partook of the fruit, the very first thing he desired was to share its joy with his family and everyone else; that is why I LOVE missionary work! We get to share the everlasting joy that comes from the gospel of Jesus Christ with everyone :) We have seen so many miracles this week I don't know where to start! A few days ago before leaving the apartment, we were determined to see a miracle! We only had 10 minutes for that miracle to happen because we were on our way out of town to visit a member, but we were determined! On our way to the train station, we decided we were going to stop every person we saw during that 10 minutes. Well, I'll be honest... on the inside...that didn't sound super appealing to me...I would rather just stop one person, and have the miracle happen with them hahaha. That WOULD be a miracle! ;) Well, lucky for me...miracles happen! Within 3 minutes of leaving our apartment, we met Sandra, a young woman from Brazil. She understands some French but doesn't speak much. Miraculously, we had a Book of Mormon AND a restoration DVD in Portuguese! It was so special because I felt we really connected as we both struggled to speak in a language that wasn't our own. The spirit was so strong and just testified even more that even though the languages change all around the world, the spirit does not. The spirit will always testify of truth. :) Here in Angers, there is a beautiful river that runs right through the village. We haven't had much time to admire it since we have been here so Wednesday we decided to snap a few pictures over there during our lunch hour! While we were out and about we discovered the coolest restaurant...a pizzeria yacht, on the river! We went in and enjoyed some amaaaazzzzing pizzas on the deck of the boat while we marveled at the river splashing alongside and the Chateau in the distance! Later that night we went over to a new members house, Nathalie, with Soeur Chevet. Nathalie is fun to visit because she always has soo many questions! She always wants to learn which is totally awesome :) Though her question, this time, was a little unexpected hahaha...we were teaching about the blessings that come when we pay tithing and we read a passage in the bible (Malachi 3:10) that says, "10 Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it." Then, in all seriousness, she says "So, is that why all the Mormons in America are so rich? Because of their tithing? The Lord blessed them more?"... HAHA, I wanted to say, "YES! ;)"... But Soeur Curtis beat me to the response... hey, at least she made the connection between tithing and blessings! Even if it wasn't 100% accurate haha :). Thursday was a little crazy, we had planned to go out to a member’s house who lives about an hour out of town but then we got a call saying that the member who was supposed to come with us was locked in her house and couldn't get out...she didn't sound too concerned about it, which made it all the more concerning for us hahaha. But she insisted that all was well and we just needed to find someone else to go with us Hahahaha. So we started calling up different investigators to see if we could find someone to come with us for a lunch/lesson with FeiFei. It was such a miracle because none of our Amis answered!...I know that doesn't sound like a miracle yet, but just wait... So, we resorted to calling a woman named Eva who the missionaries had contacted before I came into the mission. She has never answered any of our calls and texts before but by a miracle, she answered! By another miracle, she was THRILLED to accompany us on our little day trip to FeiFei's! It turned out to be one of the best days of the mission thus far. FeiFei lives on a BEAUTIFUL farm in the middle of nowhere in this incredible home with nothing but green grassy fields in every direction as far as you can see! She made us some awesome authentic Chinese food and we had a wonderful lesson with Eva about the Book of Mormon. We finished with a challenge to her to read Moroni 10 before our next visit and she was thrilled! She has been texting us every day with updates on the things she is learning and feeling as she reads the Book of Mormon! How cool is that!? She has 3 little boys with her husband. I know this is the family we have been praying to find! She and her little 12-year-old are living alone in France right now while her husband is in America with the other two finishing up the adoption process. As she told us about her family she expressed her desire to have religion in their lives and to be together with her family as long as possible... I was so happy I just wanted to jump up and sing, "YOU CAN BE TOGETHER FOR *ETERNITY*!!!!" It was such an incredible miracle, we are so excited to continue to teach Eva and her family and see the many ways the gospel blesses their family :) We have weekly planning every Friday, which takes a really long time, but it was nice because we were able to enjoy the snow storm from the comfort of our apartment as we stood over our little portable heater with some nice hot chocolate! Haha. Friday was also my not-so-little brother’s 15th birthday (Love ya J-Dub!)! Jayden, your birthday brought so many miracles... Two of my very favorite! The first one...YOU! I remember how excited I was to show off my brand new baby brother to EVERYONE! That excitement has only gotten more exciting over the years! I am SO proud of you! I love you and miss you so much bud :) and girls... I know, he is a stud... But he is still my baby brother... The second miracle was a little more recent :) During planning, we received a very unexpected call, a woman from about an hour outside of town who we have never met named Jacqueline. When we picked up the phone, she was so excited! She immediately began to tell us how much she LOVED the Book of Mormon and that she has read it 4 times and that she just can't get enough! Then she said some words that I will never forget... She said, "I just really really want to get baptized into your church! Will you come teach me?"...I thought my companion was going to drop the phone, we were both frozen!! I think for a moment we thought someone must have been pulling our legs haha. Well, you bet we immediately started making calls to find out how we could get out to see Jacqueline! We found some members who live out in the same area and we asked them if they would pick her up on their way for church on Sunday and she came! She LOVED it! She made so many comments in the lessons and she would always say, "Hi! I'm not a member yet, but I just wanted to say..." Then she would give the most heartfelt comments, it was amazing! Not to mention her scriptures are marked and annotated to pieces! She didn't just read them 4 times, she really studied them!! Being a missionary is amazing. I believe It is moments and miracles like these that make it the "best" 18 months or 2 years of your life :) I am sure I could write another 3 pages, but I gotta save some miracles for later :) I love you so so much and I am praying for all of you, thank you so much for all that you do and the support that you give! We can truly feel your prayers out here and they mean so much to us. We hope you can feel ours too <3 One last thing before I wrap this email up...my companion and I read a talk together called, "Come what may and love it". It was given in the general conference of October 2008. It talks about how the way we react to adversity is a major factor in how happy and successful we are in life. With the theme of this 40-day fast being "Attitude of Gratitude", I wanted to share a little piece of it with you that has really helped me to keep those negative thoughts away, take everything that comes, and find a way to love it :)... "I know why there must be opposition in all things. Adversity, if handled correctly, can be a blessing in our lives. We can learn to love it. As we look for humor, seek for the eternal perspective, understand the principle of compensation, and draw near to our Heavenly Father, we can endure hardship and trial. We can say, as did my mother, “Come what may, and love it.”- Elder Joseph B. Within I hope you all have a beautiful week! Jusqu'à la prochaine fois! Tendrement, Sœur 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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