Last E-Mail, Weird

Bonjour!

Happy b-day mom! I hope everything goes well with all the vacations y'all will be doing and stuff.  Well can you believe that this is the last e-mail that I will be sending to you as a missionary? Me either. It kinda makes me sick. I have been kinda depressed as the time begins to shrink and shrink. Being sick last weekend didn't help much either.  NO, not pancreas stuff, but if I am completely honest I should not have left the hospital as early as I did. My enzyme levels were still at like 3,000 and it has been taking me a bit of time to REALLY recover.  I have been really tired.  I didn't sleep all of last week and I guess that made my immune system crash a bit. Small things, such as a cold, were really amplified.  I managed to finally catch a few z's Sunday and yesterday and I feel alright now.  I must admit that I have lost a ton of motivation this transfer as far as work goes.  I feel like it is my fault that everything has kinda gone down the toilet. YES, I know that I couldn't control anything, but.......still. Well that's enough!  I just really needed to vent!

     On the bright side, we did manage to fix a baptismal date for the beginning of July with a brand new amie from Nigeria. Anna has a lot of faith and just really wants to learn about Christ. She is a referral from an old investigator, and she is excited to learn more about the gospel. We have also been finding tons and tons of potentials contacting.  A good half of them were fake numbers, however we did manage to make a few new amis outta all of it. We will be seeing one of them today, his name is Romaric, and we will be trying to fix a date with him, as well as a few others.

    Well I'm keeping my head high and I have definitely grown closer to my Savior this transfer if nothing else. You know everything that President Finn blessed me with has come true so far. Not in ways I expected,  but lets just say I have learned a lot about humility these past few months (not that I can even say that I am humble) and without God we truly are nothing.

     Well, this is it. One more push!  I love all of you and I am so grateful for all of your support! I definitely did not serve this mission alone! Thank you tons! I will see you at Salt Lake at 2 next Thursday......à bientot!

LOVE ELDER LYONS

Last few weeks!

So... I will get the little thingies outta the way first, comme d'hab!

YEP, I got all of the B-day packages and I loved em all!  They are pretty much all eaten already.  I haven't had the return visit to the Dr. yet and I am not completely sure when it is... I just had a follow up blood test . I think they were making sure that my enzymes are down..... not completely sure about that because I can't read the doctors hand writing. I will give them a call soon if I don't hear anything.   Yes, I look forward to SF!!

    Well, I still had to take the first half of this week a little slow, but I got up to working a full day by Wednesday or Thursday. We also had a member of the seventy come and visit us in Paris and he pretty much tore it up! Elder Teixeria challenged us to have the faith to find new investigators everyday and to teach 21 lessons a week! That's a lot in case you were wondering.  Our stand was set at 16 a week and not everyone reaches that. HE was the mission pres. in the Sao Paulo south mission and apparently it wasn't always on fire like it is now. They used to be a lot like Europe but when he came in as president he felt inspired to boost the goals up and look at em now! He gave an incredible talk on faith and hard work and pretty much pumped me up for my last two weeks. I also had to give what we call a "dying testimony". This is where all of the missionaries that will be leaving at the end of the transfer give their final words, so to speak, and bear their testimonies......wasn't fun, but it was good.

This week was a little rough and we didn't have much going on, but we did have a cool church activity where the members were suppose to bring friends to teach and do a little tour of the church.  No one came but a few members so those members that came decided to go find people with us!!  IT was cool to do contacting with frère gaba and we ended up (all together) finding 4 or 5 people.  We got their addresses and numbers and fixed rdvs so it was successful in the end. Well... now comes the big push to really find and teach people before we hand Melun off to two brand new missionaries.  We will see what happens.

I LOVE YOU

elder lyons

Still Alive!

 So last week was not too exciting.  For the most part I was sleeping at the apartment recovering. The medication they gave me was super strong and knocked me out pretty good,  the only problem is that I kinda became nocturnal and slept during the day.  I am trying to break out of  that habit right now....not too easy. However, I got fed up of sitting around.  On Friday we called a few potential amies and even fixed a couple rdvs, and we  were able to make a new amie!  We found Makan while waiting for a train to come and he was super touched by our testimonies and how everything we do and believe is centered on Christ!! We taught him about the restoration and I invited him to be baptized, he responded enthusiastically saying," Oui je suis pret! "(yes i am ready!) Well, he has got a few more lessons before that can happen but we love his enthusiasm. The new missionaries should be getting a few baptisms right as they come in....pretty cool!

     So other than that,   I finally got to go to the Louvre on Monday!   LEGIT, but it maybe wasn't the best of ideas to run around as much as we did, because now I am dead tired.... Super fun though.

    Well I am super grateful for all your prayers, and appreciate the many things you've done for me, and look forward to seeing you soon

Elder Lyons

Jason's Health

Jason's Mom speaking again,
  Jason is recuperating from his last pancreatic attack.  Apparently the doctors pumped his stomach during his last attack.  This procedure caused him to go into shock.  Needless to say his body is having a harder time recovering.  He has spoken with his mission President and the two of them feel that it would be best for him to return home one transfer early.  It is not considered and early release because it falls within a month of his call date.  Jason has mixed feelings.  In his own words, " My head is telling me No! but my body is telling me, Yes!"  We have mixed feelings too.  Mostly for him.  I am excited to see my son in just a few weeks.  I feel that it will be better to have him home so we can help him in case he has another attack.  Hopefully we can find a good doctor to help us figure out, What next?
 Jason has served an awesome mission and done extremely well.  We are very proud of him.

Liberation!!! Again.

Oh boy,  I don't even know what to say!

     I just got outta the hospital and it is about 8 o'clock here in Melun.  I have never been so grateful to be outside!!!!!  So here is the update. The doctors got a hold of the doctors in Brest (the people doing my genetic test) and guess what .....it came back negative! Not much has changed, I am still a big mystery. The doctor here is pretty sweet and seems to think they can figure something out.....I appreciate the enthusiasm.. but I am not completely convinced yet.  I have an rdv with him in a couple of weeks to plan out what I wanna do.           Apparently, from what I understood, there is one more genetic test they could do that is even more complicated than the first.  The first one only searched for common anomalies and this other one searches for abnormal ones.....yeah I don't get it either.  After that, they want to do an MRI but I am pretty sure I have done one. They're in the middle of getting all of my paperwork from Limoges so if I did do one they will find out and that will change the plans.  The last option, according to them, is to send me to the French's greatest in Paris who apparently specialize in pancreatitus cases......I am not sure what I think yet. 

    This last visit to the hospital was pretty tough.  I have definitely grown really close to my Savior this week and I have really grown to appreciate His atonement! I couldn't make it if it wasn't for Him!! This last week end was one of the darkest moments of my life. For the first time I was just wanting to give up and go home! But I know in whom I have put my faith; and Jesus Christ gives us the power to overcome anything.

    Well, before this escapade we had a fairly good week! We have been spending most of our time contacting all day every day.   I understand what Chris is going through and he is right, it is fun! We have even found someone every time we have gone out finding which equals a lot of potentials.  Unfortunately we haven't been able to follow up on them yet because I have been in prison all week. OH! p.s.  I have a huge beard right (don't worry I will shave it) now.  It's pretty gross.  I will take pictures and send them to y'all next week!             UMMMMmmm... what were your other questions?  Oh yeah...no I unfortunately did not get much work done in this hospital but ....well I don't want to scare you, but the first night I went into shock because of a weird treatment they were doing.  They sent a big tube up my nose and down to my stomach to suck out all the acidity from it.......worst experience ever!  I had to keep it in there for 24 hours. After that I was in a lot of pain so I spent most of my time intoxicated with morphine and some other drug.  But everything is good!! I am doing well and I will be taking it a little slow these next couple of days to recover!  I have an awesome companion who is one transfer ahead of me and we have bonded a lot these past couple of days! If anything, I sure can't deny the power of Christ's atonement because I have never felt it as powerfully as I did this weekend.

    So don't worry.  My chin is up, and I won't be hasty about turning down tests, but if you could fast for me (beings i cant) I sure would appreciate it. I am gonna need all the help I can get these last weeks here

LOVE

ELDER LYONS

Tender Mercies

Jason is in the hospital in Melun today so you get to hear from his mother.  This is his second pancreatic attack while serving his mission.  It is always amazing to see how the Lord takes care of his missionaries.  His first attack happened in a city with a University hospital, which are supposed to be the best in France.  His second attack has happened in a city where his Aunt just happens to have a friend living.  I don't believe in coincidences.  It was great to have someone check up on him.  His mission president is awesome, but some of his translations of medical terms into English are not the best.  Funny, but confusing.
     Jason is doing fine.  We should have his blood tests back on the genetic testing in about a week.  The results  will determine if he is on medication for the rest of his life or not.  The doctors would like to do some more tests, but that will be up to Jason to decide.  I know he hates tests but I can't help but wonder if part of the reason he was called to France was because they could help him with this aspect of his life.  I asked him to pray about it before he told them, "No Way!"  We will see.  Hopefully next week we will have another report from Jason.

Sorry

      I am so sorry about how bad the emails have been getting.  This place really goes nuts when holidays happen.  I also totally forgot how soon mothers day was. CRAZY! Well here's our number 0688071100 I think it would be best if you just call when you are available and I will answer it!  Oh yeah, I am getting moved. I will be spending the rest of my mission in Melun. It is like 30 minutes from Paris so that should be cool, I have never really been anywhere near Paris!

     Well things were going really well here. We had a super legit rendezvous with William the Ghanaian amie!  We were teaching a lesson on the commandment to follow the prophets and I felt inspired to ask him what he felt about Joseph Smith. He basically testified to us that he knew that he was a prophet from reading the Book of Mormon and he has watched the video every morning and he knows that the BOM is the word of God! HE IS READY!! He should be getting baptised sometime next transfer. We also had a legit lesson with Damien's family. They have all been reading in the Book of Mormon.  Even the little ones, LEGIT! We watched a movie called Our Heavenly Fathers Plan, (super old), it's about the plan of salvation and they liked it. We then explained the first half of the plan of salvation. I shared the experience of when I came home from track the night mom got diagnosed with cancer and how I tried trick or treating our own house.  Not knowing about anything that mom had been going through and thinking I was being funny.  I had my heart broken with everyone yelling at me for disturbing our poor mother...not the best way to find out she had cancer....I was devastated.  I remember how powerful family prayer became then.  I shared how unified we became through Christs atonement and through doing simple things such as family prayers and scripture study!  IT WAS SO COOL to see the kids reaction! Normally they are rambunctious and hyper, like ....normal kids, but after I shared this experience ...everything got really quiet and the spirit was so STRONG!! I expressed how much love I had for my savior for bringing our family together and challenged them to hold family prayers and study! Damien's mom Danielle has already read a descent amount in the BOM and the Joseph Smith book. She has agreed to be baptised when she knows it is true!!! I hope she gets it soon but I know and feel like she is so close!!! Damien's a super example for her and she is super touched by his testimony and she is super grateful for us and helping him find this incredible testimony. Which is basically what pushed her into wanting to learn more. The family she has tried to share the gospel with who wasn't really listening is all of a sudden listening and not just with their ears, but with their hearts!!! I am gonna miss them SO much.  Even if I get to see them soon with y'all!

    Well other than that we had a few other great rdvs with Qiongji and Winnoc. Qiongji knows baptism is what she needs to do and even has a testimony of prayer now. BIG STEP. But she really needs a stronger testimony of Christ and this is our focus on helping her now. 

     Well I got to leave, but know that I love you so much and that I am working my hardest out here! I love my savior Jesus Christ and grow closer to Him every day! ..... I still don't have genetic results yet but the hospital is sending me all the results this week and then I have got to go back for a check up soon .....which means I will be doing a trip back to Limoges WOO!!

So here is my new address 10 Rue Brasserie Gruber

                                               Melun ( not sure what the serial code is)

LOVE YOU TONS