Rough, Rough,Rough

Dear Family,

 

 

  Well this email might be shorter than normal, and it is not because I am sick. But more of the fact that there is not too much to say. I once again was SUPER sick for the entire past week. Which meant I got stuck in the boring apartment most of the time, and not much got accomplished. I am not quite sure what I had the first day, but I had a nasty tummy ache and felt really nauseated. My insomnia problem started getting bad the week before as well, and that made things worse than normal. And then the entire week went down the hill beings I got NO sleep, and I finally had to take sleeping pills to get back on to my normal sleeping routine again. I didn't think no sleeping would be such a problem, but I guess after a few weeks or so it kinda adds up a bit. Still never thought it would be something that would hinder me from workin'! Turns out i was wrong. Oh well, I am doing a lot better again and this week is gonna be awesome! At the moment we literally have no one to teach (big ol' zero woot! ) beings all of our investigators wouldn't progress for one reason or the other, or they turned out to be INSANE! But what better time to find some new people than right before Christmas! We will also be working really hard on getting the members involved and getting referrals because we have already showed them that we have been capable of bringing people by our own efforts and even had a baptism in a miraculously short time of a month! Now it is there turn!!! I think Rémi will be awesome beings he is still high on the new baptism convert spirit thingy, so we will be working with him as well as many others. Other than that we have alot of doors with our names on it, and this is going to be one of the most tiring Christmases ever. But the most rewarding as well! Remember the most important part of Christmas, and that the greatest gift ever given from our Heavenly Father has already been given! He gave us His only begotten Son and through Him comes all of our joy! MERRY CHRISTMAS§§§§§§

 

Love

Elder Lyons

Baptism!! Yea!

    Yeah... I am sorry I sent the wrong address but I still got your package Mom, so no worries!!! I am pretty sure that was the only thing, besides Lili's package, that has gotten sent back because I got Granny's things too!

`ANYWAYS... First off, the baptism was AMAZING!  You couldn't wipe the smile off of Remi's face!!  He has been such a testimony builder for me and I am so grateful for his example!! He is sacrificing a lot of sleep to come to church. He works nights and you could tell he was tired but after I confirmed him he was full of energy!! It was super cool to give him the Holy Ghost.  The Lord promised him some pretty cool blessings! It's always cool to be able to bless people and I am SO glad to be counted worthy to serve others in this manner, especially in french too! You can always feel the Lords love for these special people and it is quite a humbling and powerful spiritual experience!

    Unfortunately A LOT of the amies we had last transfer have been dropped because they won't progress.  We have been working our butts off knocking on a ton of doors and contacting A LOT everyday. We found an awesome Polish man named Christian (that we found contacting last week ) whom we taught yesterday! He has already read quite a bit in the french Book of Mormon and has felt its power; but he was also very excited to get his Polish one yesterday! HE is SUPER nice and willing to learn.  He already agreed to follow the answer he gets by reading and praying to know the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon! We will also be walking with him to the Christmas activity this week and to church beings he conveniently lives close to the church!! I am so excited for him and I think he will be Valenciennes next baptism!!

     Well, we continue to do loads of porting and contacting.   Like I said before, we have had to drop quite a few of our amies from last transfer but the Lord has blessed us in many ways. Our faith has been strengthened and we have found many potentials. We also had the wonderful opportunity last Tuesday to go to Paris for the Christmas conference and visit a lot of the town. ( don't worry I will send pictures and baptism pictures soon) I also must say I was super touched by moms letter and I still don't think you ever messed up with me!! I never expected you to be perfect. No one is.  To me and for me you were more than perfect, because you loved me enough to correct me when I was being stupid, and to pick me up when I was down, and you cheered me on when I was doing what was right or when I was running or doing art stuff or whatever it may have been! I love you mom and dad and I will never cease to be grateful for the wonderful examples you were and ARE to me and my bro and sissies! I know they would agree with me full heartedly!! I just wish I could have been more grateful when I was around, but I won't make that mistake again!

    I'm going to have to end this letter soon because I am pretty sick with the flu or something, but know that I love you all SO much! Oh, btw I will be calling you guys this Christmas because I will be chilling at one of my favorite members houses for Christmas and they told me they have free calls to the US.  I thought I would take them up on the offer!! I will tell you more details next week as to when and stuff. Tell Sister Lockhart I love her and that I am so sorry for being a butt and not sending her letters! Tell her that her letter, as well as all of the Relief Society sisters, were so awesome!! I will be writing one for Sister Lockhart today beings I will not have anything else to do because I am so sick.  Know that I am good and that we are pumped for the work. I love you.

Elder Lyons

December in France

  Let's see if I can answer some of your questions. ONE , Yes I got grandmas package and it was greatly appreciated!!  It came in one of the best moment's of my mission!! We just finished yet another wonderful rendezvous with Remy and the baptism is going to be awesome this Saturday!!     We taught him the remaining commandments and it turns out he already keeps all of them!! (P.S. the tie is beautiful grandma!!)  TWO, No Mom I haven't gotten this calendar thingy yet .....THREE No I haven't heard from Joe either. I sent a letter to him ages ago and I hope he got it, but I am not sure.....I haven't heard from Nils for awhile either. FOUR, Yes we have a zone Christmas thing tomorrow in Paris so that will be pretty tight!!! 

 

    Alright! This last week was incredible! Obviously, with the baptism for Rémy coming up, but we have had some incredible experiences tracting and contacting this week as well!! Where to start....I believe it was Tuesday where we had absolutely nothing planned but contacting until 7pm.  We recently had made a goal to be more specific in our prayers and planning so we could be more effective in finding these elect persons.  The night before we specifically planned to find someone searching for another testament of Christ ...or someone we could share the Book of Mormon with.  We also wanted to find a young couple that was just starting their family.  In the first hour we found no one. Just as we were about to finish up I saw a nice looking man with a cowboy looking hat and glasses and I knew it was our man! Turns out he is from Poland and he LOVES gospel music and searching into other religions. He was super excited to hear about a polish Book of Mormon.....No I didn't have one on me, but that's how we fixed a return rendezvous and got his address!!  We will be stopping by his place this Wednesday with a brand new polish BOM!

    Later we went out to the university where we hoped to find our young couple. We found them almost immediately after we got of the tram and we ran to talk to them! Turns out they weren't to interested in the gospel but they were super nice.  I know that god put them in our path because we specifically asked for them.

     Later in the week we went tracting for two hours after getting bauffed (stood up) by Claude. It started out super SUPER rough.  No one would even let us say anything before they slammed the door in our faces. This continued for an hour (it was raining pretty bad).....and needless to say we wanted to go home.  I just couldn't let myself.  I told my comp we had to keep on goin' ! Not much changed, but we started to have fun with it and laugh at how ridiculous things were with the rain and some .....interesting people we were meeting. We started to try and talk to people about Christmas and apparently people thought we were trying to trick them into something because they kept telling us they weren't interested.  My companion would say,"what you don't like Christmas!"  It didn't help much, but I had to try really hard not to laugh. Well anyways, we kept going for another half hour and then we ran into this lady who said she didn't celebrate Christmas and that she didn't believe in God.  This caught me a little of guard....well not her unbelief but the Christmas thing.  I could tell that she was struggling with something. I felt like I needed to testify of the gift of Christ,( being the atonement), and how through his atonement we could learn how to overcome the difficulties of life.  By studying the scriptures like the Book of Mormon we could grow to understand this gift and gain a testimony of God and His church. I testified that this was how we could find true happiness. She started crying and was super touched about our love for her. She took the Book of Mormon and is excited to have us come back. She looked like someone had just beaten her and I wanted to help her so bad!! I hope she doesn't have a jerk husband!!!!!  Needless to say, we found who we needed to after a   l  o  n  g   session of tracting, but it was super good!!

     I love this time of year as a missionary! There is no better time than now to share a message of Christ! I think next time we are going to try caroling and see if that will go anywhere!!! Anyways we are loving it in Valenciennes and miracles happen everyday!! I miss all of you and loves all of you tons!! I sent out letters to most of you and you should have gotten them by now....tell me if you don't! I haven't sent grandmas and Lili's yet but those should come soon too!

Have a great week and I will talk to you soon!

LOVE ELDER LYONS

Insomnia Again!!

 I don't know what is wrong with my body but I just can't seem to ever get to sleep on my mission!!!  I literally got NO sleep the entire beginning of the week and let's just say after walking around EVERYWHERE your body starts to shut down......oh well I had a really cool blessing from my companion and I am on a normal sleeping cycle again.

     This week was a little rough (mostly at the beginning).....we dropped one of our newer amies Mms. Fontaine.  Well, I guess she dropped us.  She thinks that there never was an apostasy and that the Pierre was the first pope and he passed authority straight down to now. We read and unfolded the scriptures with her and explained lots of ordinances that were lost, and testified our hearts out for her, but she very nicely said she doesn't want us to come back again.

     A lot of other rendezvous fell through but we had another killer rendezvous with Rémy!! He is SO ready for baptism! We were privileged to have Alexandre and our DMP Jaque Moermon with us and they bore powerful testimonies!!!  We taught the gospel of Christ, being Faith, repentance, baptism with the gift of holy ghost, and enduring to the end.  Our main focus was the need to gain a testimony of God and His church through FAITH and REPENTANCE and making covenants such as BAPTISM so that we will have the HOLY GHOST and a firm testimony to strengthen us as we ENDURE the trails of life! IT was super powerful. The only thing he needs to work on is changing his work schedule so he can come to church more.  He works late nights as a nurse of some sort, from 9pm to 7am,.......pretty tiring.  He is already working on that but we could use as many prayers as possible so that he can change his schedule!
  Another cool miracle that happened this week when we were walking late at night and a man recognized us as Mormons. Luckily we recognized him as Claude ,an old amie, that slammed the door on us after passing by once. He was very touched that we remembered his name after only one quick visit (not even that) and he has changed a lot since then. He has experienced a lot of family trials and his daughter has been in and out of jail. We got to bear short simple but powerful testimony on how the restored gospel could bless his family and living the principles therein would change his families lives! We explained what Christ has done for us and the blessing of having a modern prophet. We gave him a Book of Mormon (beings he didn't have one) and fixed a rendezvous for next week! He was super excited! We're excited too.  I really don't know why, but I feel like I have met this guy before ......it's weird but in any case I have good feelings and hope for him.
     Thank you SO much for your prayers! I can honestly say I have felt every single one of them and they strengthen and uplift me everyday. I am definitely not on my mission alone!! I hope Thanksgiving was awesome and know that I pray for you tons!!!!
 

   P.S. What's up with this nonsense of Tallen being hitched already!!!! I knew he was too much of a stud to last!!!!!!

Love ELDER LYONS

Tough but Good

Bonjour!

 

    Well, first I will just get some little things outta the way. Yes I got LeAnn's letter and the awesome pictures. They were wonderful.  I also got Granny's and her pictures were just as wonderful. No I haven't gotten the Primaries thingy....it probably got lost in the pain in the booty mail system here. Ummmmm.....I think that's that for little things. 

     CONGRATULATIONS on the new job Dad!!! I am not gonna lie, I have been praying a ton ever since you told me about it and God has so lovingly opened the windows of heaven! Which means I need to work even harder now! I also can't wait to talk to all of you and Grandma and Grandpa Larsen! ça sera incroyable! 

 

     Et bien, this week was pretty tough but nonetheless we have been greatly blessed here and honestly have no reason to complain. The beginning of the week was spent trying to take care of the stupid car. Elder Horton hit a pole (he he).  Well, it was funny until we found out how much it will cost (2-5000 euros!!!!!!!!) .....yeah not so funny now. But it took forever to get the crazy car dealership to take the stupid thing and no one would give us a devi (french for estimate).  However,  as of today it is all taken care of and should be done soon.

     Along with that, we found a cool lady named Madame Fontaine and had a really good rendezvous with her. At the beginning she told us we would never convert her and we just kinda got to know her a little bit and explained or purpose in coming. We told her we weren't there to convert her, because the only one that could convert her would be herself.  She would have to decide if what we taught was right or not through sincere prayer and study. She opened up and we had a great discussion on the Book of Mormon and answered some questions about the church.  We challenged her to read and pray about the Book of Mormon (we gave her Moroni 7 to read) and she gratefully and willingly excepted!

     Later that week went to  see Madame Gabez again and things were going really well! She was super excited to see us and we even started to have an organized lesson with her en fin!!!! BUT Satan really doesn't wanna lose her I guess, because right after we started our lesson her sister-in -law burst into (and i mean that quite literally) the house! She quite abruptly interrupted everything and started catapulting questions at us...slash at Elder Horton. For some reason she never ever looked at me, but she seemed to be very very good at staring at my companion and nothing else. Things actually started out pretty good, we taught her the first lesson....kinda, it was really sporadic cause she kept asking bizarre questions. She told us that Christ wont come until there is one true church and that we were in a state of apostasy .... basically. We testified that we were, but fortunately God restored His church in its fullness through Joseph Smith. Then she just flipped!!! I don't even remember half the garbage she said, but we testified boldly of the restoration and did our best to get outta there quickly.  Madame Gabez even defended us on a lot of things but she looked so sad that her family was trying to tear us up. NOT a pretty picture. Hopefully things have cooled down before we head back.

     A lot of the later rendezvous got cancelled or rescheduled....but that's mission life.  Rémy is still a stud so life is good! Unfortunately he had to miss church because he was knocked out after having his wisdom teeth removed, but he should be coming the rest of the time. Well, life is going good.  I love you all and I hope all continues to go as well as it has been!!! We truly have been SO so blessed!! We definitely have a lot to be grateful for this season!!!!

 

Love,

Elder Lyons

Spiritualy Exhausted

Dear Family,

    I was so happy to hear how well everyone is doing and how much you have all grown up unto the Lord. Though I am far away I can feel your presence and influence around me at all times and I know that God is smiling as he is looking over our family. 

     It has been a marathon week for me and Elder Horton and we have been  doing our best to just keep up with it! We had a marvelous conference with the area seventy president, Elder Kopishka. He started by telling us to write down what we wanted to get out of this conference, more specifically a question we wanted to be answered, and promised that if we had faith, all of our questions would be answered. He proceeded to tell us that this is how we should invite our investigators to come to church, and that if we recieved our answers at the end of the meeting that we had to promise him that this was how we would always invite people to come to church. Needless to say ALL of the missionaries questions were answered that night and we were all edified by the spirit.  We planed collectively, in companionships, and individually how we could become more devoted to the Lord and His work! His theme was more or less focused on ,"living your dream."   He asked all of us how we imagined our missions the day we got our call, and a few missionaries shared their righteous dreams they envisioned and then Elder Kopiska paused and asked us if our dreams were still the same, or if we had buried them with doubt, or fear, or whatever else. Then he strongly invited us to live our dreams, and to live up to our potential, and to stop burying our dreams. It was powerful, and I know I am not the only one that was motivated to improve my life.

     The next day we had exchanges with the Lille Elders.  Me and Elder Zarbock made a strong effort to really find the elect and to really follow the spirit. It was hard! We just kept wanting to talk to everyone because the whole searching for the right one wasn't working.  We persisted and found a good balance of searching and stopping people and we were able to hear the spirit tell us where we needed to go and we found a SUPER nice Tahitian lady and talked to her for some time. We taught her about families and how the restored gospel could bless her family. We gave her a Book of Mormon and tried to exchange coordinates, but she didn't have a phone and didn't show up to church as she said, BUT we knew that it was her that God had lead us to and we felt pretty good.  Later that day ,after we exchanged back to our proper villes, we had another killer rendezvous with Rémy! We taught him the plan of salvation using and expounding the scriptures in 2 NE 2.  He loved the concept of needing to have opposition to learn and grow, to become like our Heavenly Father, and inherit the blessings our Father wants for us! We explained how this plan only works if we do our part and that the first step is through making covenants with God,  the first of which is being baptized. He excitingly accepted to prepare himself to be baptized on the 10th of December! He is a stud and frankly he has stregnthened my testimony because of his exceeding faith. He follows his heart and thirsts for truth! You can just tell when you look in his eyes how much he loves our Savior and how much he wants to follow Him. Whenever we call him to fix rendez-vous or talk about the gospel he lightens up that much more and gets super excited. Everyone else gets excited due to his sinscere spirit!  I sure hope I don't have to move soon and miss another baptism, but I have learned not to complain....at least as much as before (still not perfect) because who is the one that prepared these people in the first place, sure wasn't me! This is Gods work and only by His Spirit can we do anything!!

     In other news, we recently started teaching a young lady named Isabelle whom we teach English to every Tuesday.  She likes to learn about the gospel at the last half of the rendezvous. She is really cool and we have lots of hope for her as we set plans and make goals for what she wants to get out of  these lessons.    Tommorow we will be seeing her again with a member that is her age.  This member also speaks really good English.  Things should go well.

     We also taught that lady ( Mme Gabé)  we met at the beginning of the transfer.  She has already been reading in the Book of Mormon and feeling a lot better about herself and God. Last time she had said, "there is no GOd and that all of her sufferings were evidence of it," and even kinda yelled at us a bit for the first half of the rendezvous.  Since our bold testimonies of Christ and His atonement, and  our recent visits, she has now gained a bit of faith and desrie to know and serve Him better. She has to go back to the hospital this week but we continue to pray and do all we can for her.

    Well I gotta wrap things up! I love yall, and I will try and send more details and pictures by mail

LOVE ELDER LYONS

Speechless

Well frankly, I don't even know where to start this week because there have been so many amazing and crazy things going on lately!

    I thought that, before I forget, I would tell you that I have not gotten anything from our primary. I am SUPER sorry. I think it got to Namur, because I vaguely remember them telling me that I had gotten something from our ward, which means that I will get it this Wednesday at zone conference. For the time being, tell them I said "thanks" and that missions are the best!!

    TALLENS HOME!!!! that is .....weird! Give him a big fat bisou for me (kiss)!! Thanks Chris that letter was just fantabulous!!!

    OK, so now the big news!!!! It has been 3 weeks since we have found anyone to teach and pretty much nothing had moved anywhere...until last week! So Wednesday night we had a rendezvous with a recent convert.  Afterward we had about an hour and a half before we needed to go home so we decided to make a few visits by some old old amies. We knocked on the first door and they let us in and said we came at the perfect time and that they were eating.  At first I thought he was being sarcastic and I apologized, but Mr. Mambo said," NO, don't be sorry. EAT and let's have a good exchange!!! " We were flabbergasted and really had no idea what had just happened! They started serving us lasagna (from heaven) and grapes and just threw out question after question about the church.  They were SUPER excited that we were there! The Mambo family is an evangelist family from cote d'ivore and they love ,LOVE, love ,the gospel!!  Long story short, they want us to come back and help them to understand the Book of Mormon and the Bible and study with us.  We are pretty pumped for that!!

    Then we had the most amazing rendezvous with Rémy.  He is an investigator with a 6 year old sheet and whom has not seen missionaries for at least that long.  When I called him he pretty much had a heart attack from sheer excitement that I had called and we fixed a rendezvous for last Thursday. We reviewed what he had remembered and then we shared our testimonies of how we had become converted (or found our testimony) to the restored gospel and what blessings it has brought in our lives.  We taught with a young recent convert ,named Alexandre,who bore a powerful testimony of his conversion. I related my history to Joseph Smiths. How I did a similar search ,in that I studied the scriptures A TON, and through sincere prayer learned by revelation that this is really the Church of Jesus Christ! HE LOVED it and he wants to be baptized!!  We fixed goals with him and he was even more excited and asked if we could start now!! So.. we taught the next lesson.  At the end he asked if we could just read a little in the Book of Mormon.  We read Moroni 7 together and talked about the importance of faith hope and charity!!! He is pretty much a stud!! AND he is close to our age so it makes it all the more exciting!!!!

    This week was very enriching to see the miracle of the gospel work within so many people's lives. We are now working with two great families and this wonderful young man and a few others. There is no doubt in my mind that they were prepared by our Heavenly Father! He has taught me a lot since I have been a missionary.  He always seems to know how to humble me more and more.  Right in the moment where we think we can't do it anymore or we think something is pointless, Heavenly Father lovingly and patiently says," just keep on chuggin a little bit more....you'll see. "  Then if we are smart, we keep chuggin a tiny bit more and thousands of blessings fall out of nowhere and we wonder why we ever complained. Patience is SO important in missionary work!! I thank God for being so SO patient with me; as well as my poor parents who got stuck raising a poop like me! Despite it all God has refined me and loved my enough to chasten and correct me and has molded me into the man that I am now. I am so grateful for the trials God gives us and for the correction we all so desperately need!! If He didn't care about us he'd let us do whatever we want and we'd all destroy ourselves! This is why commandments are not a list of things we can and cannot do!! They protect us from things that ACTUALLY hinder our agency, such as drugs, pornography, violence etc. Repentance is a blessing and it allows us to escape these traps and perfect ourselves!! 

,   I  will let you go. I just want all of you to know how much I love my Heavenly Father and  His Son Jesus Christ!! He truly leads this church and He has walked through all of our trails!!! He knows us better than we know ourselves and wants to help us!! Your great and I love you and I hope you get my letter with my pics!!

Elder Lyons

Valenciennes

Dear Family

 

     OK, first of all, I am sorry Chris. I had written a ton of letters the last few weeks and I thought that I may have included one in Grandmas (to save postage) for you as well; but in any case, tomorrow morning I will be sending more.  I will send yours first so I don't forget.  I PROMISE as well!!   I am super sorry that I have been idle (he he scriptural word).....

    Anyways, in other news, I am finally legal in France!!!!! I don't remember if I already told you or not.  Let's just say, that it is more than a relief to finally have that escapade over with.

    I got the Halloween package and it was super awesome! Thank you so much for all that you do for me.  It is SO nice to have someone that supports you during the hardest work I could ever be doing. It motivates me to be better because it makes me think of my wonderful parents example and brother and sisters.  I remember how awesome they are and I in turn strive to be like them! Also, all I would really like for Christmas is pictures. That book you sent last time was the best Christmas gift (along with the carols) I have ever gotten and it touched me deeply. I really don't want you spending lots of money on me, especially since it takes SOO much to just send a simple sweater and candy. If you want you can wire in money and I could buy something at "soldes". Those are the crazy sales that happen here around Christmas and they sell really nice stuff super cheap.  I would really just prefer a nice little note and some pictures over any thing you could get in the store.

     OK enough of the technical stuff... This week was much better. We have finally started to get things going a little bit and are finding people to teach. We have visited nearly all of the investigators in the area book, and more or less, call sheets are all that remain untouched for now.     We have hit a striving effort to rescue lost sheep, and have picked up two or three , all of which are very promising. One is named Robert Louchez. He is a scientist and is very very bright. He knows probably a little too much for his own good, but he is SUPER nice, very friendly, and has a strong belief in Christ and His gospel, which was surprising. Some of his beliefs are very strange and he is somewhat of a bizarre man, but it is very hard not to love him. Our first rendezvous with him was a very touching one as we mostly just strived to get to know him. We got to share spiritual experiences with each other and it was cool to see how he has been lifted and edified by the trials he has due to cancer.   I was able to relate with him a bit because of my experiences.   Then we testified of how this restored gospel can be of an even greater blessing to him. We testified of the reality of the miracles of Christ, as testified of in the Book of Mormon, in our day.  How the restored gospel can help us be closer to God than be any other means. He was deeply touched and is excited to see us for the following visits.

     Another super cool experience happened before we found Robert. We had planned to stop by a members house and give them brownies because we felt very strongly that they needed to be visited.......We hadn't even put their faces to the names of those we would be seeing but we knew that that was going to be the best use of our time. So we set out to take a  25 min. bus ride out to this tiny town called Raismes (pronounced "ram"). IT TOOK WAY LONGER THAN 25 MINUTES! First, the bus wouldn't stop for us even after I waved it down. He must of missed us somehow and the next one took it's own sweet time  getting there.  I almost wanted to just throw the plans out the window, but we stuck with it and we eventually got to our destination. It started out normal. The Gros family was a little surprised to see us in the middle of their little town but gratefully took us in. We talked and talked and enjoyed each others company and they expressed their joy in having the missionaries over after such a long time of not having them. Then I opened our message with the scripture in Alma 37:6-7.  As I was reading it Sister Gros started bawling. I didn't know if I was to continue, or to try and comfort her.....but I felt like I needed to continue. I testified of the power of the small miracles of everyday that turn into the miracle of our life. For me,  this would be all of the moments I had family home evening (despite how grumpy us children may have started to be) and all of the times I went to church as a family, all of the small testimonies from personal scripture study and those that were given by my church leaders, and most important by my loving parents and sisters and brother. I gave an example of Rachel and Natty praying for me when I was really sick with pancreatic stuff.  How much their simple prayers strengthened and touched me. Then Elder Horton testified of the power of doing the simple things.  Scripture study, prayer, and going to church. How doing these things in his life has helped him and blessed him to have incredible French for a missionary his age!! Then Sister Gros told us that they were just heading through a rough time right now. She told us that it always seemed to be right at the climax of their trials, that missionaries just randomly showed up like we had.  How the simple visits of missionaries had kept them strong and persistent in the gospel. She expressed gratitude for us and our thoughtfulness in coming. We were deeply touched by their gratitude and told them not to forget how much they have strengthened all those missionaries as well, and us!! We need them as much or more than they need us! They also expressed a desire to give us referrals. A few of their friends to teach, with them, as soon as their friends were of vacance!!

    SUPER cool family! After all of the blessings I have received, the realization comes of how weak I still am. How much stronger I need  to be. I have to put off the natural man. I often feel like Nephi when he exclaimed," O wretched man that I am, because such little things beset me".  Fears, laziness, whatever it may be.  Then I take courage because I know in whom I have trusted, and if I continue in faith,  God  will help me shake off this natural man and become more like Him who created me!!

 

I love you lots and I look forward to hearing more from you!!! You are in my prayers and my heart everyday and give me strength when I have none!!  LOVES, Elder Lyons

Tough Week!

That really bites that the athletic board is STILL a joke! It seems like the Highland Cross Country team never gets a break, just one kick in the butt after the other. I can only imagine how tough that would be to work your tail off all year, and actually make it, and then because of some administrative garbage you get cut from any chance.

    Well, it turns out things didn't go too great here in France as well.  Even with all of the unfairness of life, and amidst all of the difficulties and trials that we may face, there is someone always there with open arms to pick us up. His is a gentle call, and it does not scream for our attention. His yoke is easy, and His burden is light, and He will always give us rest when it is needed. I definitely became closer to my Eldest Brother this week as me and Elder Horton struggled to the bitter end to find new people to teach.  We had found a lot of new people the week before and fixed rendezvous for this week, but whatever seed was planted in their hearts was quickly scorched by the hot sun. We also just had a ton of things fall through or get cancelled and then ,just to put salt in the wound, my body just flat out gave up last Saturday because I have had  another random episode of insomnia for the past 2 weeks.  Whatever sleep I was getting wasn't enough to function on, because I was fighting to put phrases together in French which has not been a problem for a long time. However, we did find small moments of success amidst our struggles and I managed to recover to a normal sleeping routine after the weekend.

    One night we were visiting a list of old amies and we were having a real hard time finding an address. It was really dark and we were out in the middle of nowhere and  we were pretty much lost. Despite the desire to just give up and find our way home we tried one last time and we ended up knocking on the door we wanted. This lady, named Mary Geane, has lived through more trials than most of us and at first she was a little angry that we had showed up.  She tried to argue with us. She said that because her mom had died ,and her sister and her son, and her other son, and because she was now suffering her own physical infirmities, God didn't exist. What do you say to someone like this? I had a terrible migraine and had just been complaining about my slight suffering and just got slapped in the face with an overwhelming compassion for this poor lady. I boldly testified of the atonement of Jesus Christ and how he has already walked through our steps, however thorny and painful they may have been, and that through Him we might be comforted and receive strength to overcome whatever weaknesses we have, physical, mental, emotional and of course the spiritual pain of sin. My wonderful companion taught how our perspective becomes different in knowing the plan our Heavenly Father has for us.  Even though he is only in his third transfer he perfectly expressed and testified of the plan of salvation. We then related how Christ is the center of this plan and makes it all possible for us to return with our families and our Father after this life. What started as a slightly hostile environment had melted into hope and a powerful love that came from the spirit. All of us were edified. I am so grateful for our Savior and the love He has for all of us. This work is not ours, but His, and we are but His humble servants. I have only felt that love I felt for Mary Geane that night as strongly as I did on a few other occasions, and it is incredible! It is God's love! She unfortunately has to go to the hospital this week but we are keeping contact with her and are doing our best to encourage her and help her to re-strengthen her faith in Christ. 

 That was pretty much our only rendezvous this week but it made up for the rest of the week.

    Well my companion is awesome and is pretty much my favorite if I can pick one. He is way to much like me, that sometimes it creeps me out, but it makes life fun. I hope all is well back in the promised land and I send my love!!!!!!!!!!!!

Elder Lyons 

Oh Boy!

Dear Family!

    What a week! I am SOOOOO exhausted after transfers!!! Our first legitimate day in Valenciennes was not until Friday because I had to take my companion, Elder Horton, all the way down to Orléans to do his legality. Weird being on the opposite side for a change.

     Anyways just to answer a few questions: Yes, I got my card but not the pin,  No I didn't get anything stolen this time, No I cannot go to the baptism this week.

    Elder Horton is an amazing missionary and he is from Layton Utah. He pretty much has got the young fire and inspires me to be better!

    Um mm... Valenciennes is sweet! It reminds me a lot of past villes I have served in. The ward is great and super pumped about the work. We have a car and I have to take care of a blue card (European credit card), thus I have to learn how to balance a budget and send in a card report.....yeah...

     So most of the past couple of days consisted of traveling everywhere and trying to get used to everything. We have gotten to know a lot of cool members already and met the church leadership here. Jacques Mormone is our DMP(ward mission leader) and he is just the greatest he basically has PMG (preach my gospel)memorized and he is the only member in his family. Bishop Kimpé is like only 30 and he is a recent convert. He is basically on fire! 

    As far as work goes, there are a lot of partial member families that we will be working with as well as a few other amies. Yesterday we organized the 2 area books FULL of investigator sheets and prayerfully decided which ones to visit. We have at least a hundred and we visited quite a few on Sunday. So far we have found one that pretty much jumped out of his seat with excitement once he realized who we were and we will be seeing him in a couple of weeks because he is busy with work at the moment.

     Well me and Elder Horton are super excited to work with the members here and of course.....I cant wait to port a new ville (tracting!!!!!!) 

 This new transfer is going to be an adventure as we fight to get used to this new place and make new friends with the members and people of Valenciennes. I thank the Lord for the blessings and opportunities he gives me to grow and show my faith and do my best to follow His commandments. He can call a lot stronger people to be His missionaries but he calls the weak things of the world, namely 19 year old boys, and makes them into men of His holy priesthood to confound the wise and strong ones! Pretty humbling work! It makes me realize more and more how little I am, but also how important I am to my Heavenly Father!!! Without God we are nothing, but put our faith in His only begotten Son Jesus Christ and you can know the mysteries of God!

I loves all of you and I hope y'all got the letters I sent last week

Elder Lyons

Leaving Namur

Dear Family!!!

First off....if I don't get the letter before I leave, Elder Reed can get it to me no problem. Second of all, I might be able to go to the baptism because I am not to far away....but I have to call president first......I am nervous for this call....oh well.

 (oh and for Christmas....as always the best thing you could send me are pictures....and my blue sweater....but I think it would be a lot cheaper if you didn't send to much stuff because it is so expensive. It would be better if you just sent money and I could get something here for a whole lot cheaper beings they have ridiculous sales here where they sell nice stuff for dirt cheap......just surprise me!)

 

So it has been super crazy saying goodbye to everyone and I still cant believe that I am leaving. I am super excited to go to Valenciennes with Elder Horton, he is going to be in his 3rd transfer and he was trained by my awesome friend Elder Youngblood...so it will be pretty much amazing! So this week was a little tough beings all of the rendezvous we had fell through but we managed to still find some new people through members, and they both want to be baptised!! Whatcha know, the work skyrockets right before I leave, I must have been holding it down or something he he jk!

 

Anyways, The best part about this week was Sunday. It was fast Sunday and I of course got the opportunity to bear my last testimony to the ward, and it was tough....but I managed to cry so I was pretty proud of myself...close call though. But the part that made sacrament meeting so awesome was when Coralie and Sandrine bore their testimonies!!!! Yep that's right! First time that either of them have ever done it and it was super sweet! 

Earlier in the week we did a lot of finding. We also took every name in the area book and went and visited all of them to see if there were any lost sheep that we good bring back. A lot of them had moved so their information was useless and was immediately thrown away.  Many of them at least had numbers we could call, so we called all of them.  At the end of all of our area book adventures we have about 3-4 new people that we will be teaching next week that have really good potential.  I am super excited for these people and for the elders in Namur ...they should have some good experiences with them.

 Well in any case I have learned so much from all of the people I had a chance to serve here, and serve with. I have made some amazing friends and I most importantly got to know my Savior better!  In particular this Sunday we had a special fast to understand the atonement better as a mission.  I personally gained a greater witness of Christs love for us and was edified very powerfully by this simple sacrifice we made together. (don't worry I know my limits and drank water as I still have problems residing from past operations and God understands as well) 

I love my mission so much and I am so excited that I have ten whole months to serve my fellow brothers and sisters,  and share my testimony about Jesus with anyone that will hear me! There is no greater message than Jesus Christ and I testify that He lives and he leads and guides this church. IT is HIS church and we are lucky to be a part of it. This gives us the sacred responsibility to share it with as many as possible! Thanks  loads you are all awesome and I have sent loads of letters beings I have tons of Belgian stamps that Iwould not have been able to use unless I sent stuff now.

 

Love Elder Lyons

Wow, what a week!

 

    First of all, Dad you are my hero.  I was thinking about you a lot during conference and in priesthood session as well.  I realized that you would be alone for the first time in a long time. I am so grateful for the wonderful lessons you have taught me all my life. I greatly cherish the times I spent with you and Chris, ESPECIALLY at priesthood session! Don't ever say that we somehow turned out to be great people despite your failings, because you have never failed me or our family!! You have always been a powerful example of charity, obedience, hard work and patience and many of the Christ like virtues I hope to have one day!!! I was the one that was somewhat apprehensive about going to help people move, or clean the church, or do service when I was little, but you taught me how vitally important it was. I couldn't be lazy at our house because I would have shrunk up in the bitterness of my guilt by your strong example!!  You loved me enough to correct me and chasten me when I needed it, and taught me some of the most valuable lessons I will never forget. I have been greatly blessed because of you on my mission, because of your example. Many people that I have helped as they have tried to understand the gospel or how to incorporate their principles have been made possible because YOU taught me how to keep them ALWAYS with NO EXCEPTIONS!!! I love you dad and I apologize for being so emotional but I feel so strongly this love for you and our family that if I didn't write something I think my heart would explode!  Not to mention that your email touched me greatly ....which is kinda embarrassing because I am in a public computer place and people are probably wondering why I am freaking out! hehehe

    Again you are my hero, both you and mom, and Chris, and Meagan, and Rachel, and Natalie and all of my family!!!

 

    OK whew! That was hard! So this week was full of SUPER UPS and SUPER DOWNS. I don't think I can handle this emotional ride for too much longer, because it is killing me. (he he).

     First, the bad news....We got ANOTHER letter form Francoise this week that basically said she wants us to stay away from her. Our heart was TORN! We spent some time writing her a letter and gave her one last chance to hear our testimony of God, His Son Jesus Christ, and HIS gospel....it was a very painful letter. I hope she will feel our love for her and open her heart to its message. Other bad news was that a lot of our new amies went on short vacations but should be getting back soon ...not to big of a deal.

    NOW the good news!!!! Sandrine and Coralie are SUPER excited about the baptism and have invited all of their less active part member family members to come!! I wouldn't be surprised if similar things happen to this family that happened to the Joumoutt family we baptised last month. All of their family started to come back to church afterwards!!! We have already visited some of their family and they were deeply touched by our testimonies. I am SO excited for this baptism and what it will do for this family that I wanna explode!!  However it is very unlikely that I'll stay here after having spent 3 transfers here already. Plus there are all the changes that are going into the mission soon.  I hope I stay, but we shall see.

 

    Well conference was awesome and I loved all of President Monson's little jokes, slash, just being a spaz! I certainly was edified and greatly appreciated the emphasis on the book of Mormon.     Well I have to bust but I have finished a letter to be sent to Lili, Chris, and Grandma.....I just kept forgetting to send it....sorry, and I will send one to home as well and explain more!!!

 

Love all of you

 

Elder Lyons

A Baptism and Mostly Legal!

     ALRIGHT, the best news this week is....(well actually the baptism coming up is the best news)   I'M LEGAL in Belgium again!!!! and I am ....almost legal in France!!!!  We spent 3 days getting it all figured out but it looks like it is finally almost over! This means we can work more effectively and not be distracted AND EXHAUSTED from all of the travelling!!

     This week was awesome!! Last P-Day we had a rendezvous with Phillipe and he is pretty much awesome. He is truly searching for truth and has been to tons of other religions searching for it. He liked the application of Joseph Smiths story to him, and how Joseph had searched a lot of religions also.  Ultimately Joseph found his answer through sincere prayer!! We committed him to finding out for himself if our message was true.  We should see him again sometime this week.

     We saw Francoise again, and holy cow it was intense. At first we thought we were going to lose her because she sent us a letter last week that basically said that she was touched by what we have shared with her but that it wasn't for her and she wanted to return the Book of Mormon to us. Me and Elder Reed felt like we needed to randomly stop by her place last Thursday, even though she normally should of been busy.  We had NO idea what we were going to say....all we knew was that we needed to go see her. So we headed up to her house and she was surprised to see us.  She asked us if we got her letter...we said.., "yeah, that's why were are here!" She let us in and we just discussed what she had been feeling and listened really carefully to everything she said. She had been on vacation and she met a nice catholic priest who had really touched her and she felt like she needed to return to her catholic roots and she would find the answers she needed. I still don't even remember all of what we said and everything we asked. Basically, we found out that she still did not find what she wanted with the priest and that the biggest question she has is, "what happens after this life, is death the end?"  We felt very strongly to testify that there is a life after this life, that God has prepared a special place for all of us.  This life is for us to prepare to merit this place.  Through the Book of Mormon we can find the answers to such questions, and by the example of Joseph Smiths story... we know that if the Book of Mormon is true, that God called him as a prophet, but more importantly he really did see our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. MEANING... they do truly live!!!!   MEANING... there is a life after death!!! She was touched, you could tell, and she really likes us. We left her with a chapter to read and pray about in the BOM and she said she'd like to see us next week!

     Then the most awesome of the awesomeness that went down this week is: that Sandrine had a very spiritual experience at church and Coralie  LOVES primary! They are very integrated already in the ward and we fixed a baptismal date for the 22nd of October!! WOO!! This week was kinda full of stuff and  next week is going to be even better!!   ((PS I sent a letter on Friday to home and today I will send one to Aunt Lili with a letter for (her of course) as well as Chris and Grandma!! No I did not get any packages yet.....sorry))

    So you wanted to know what our mission goals are....well they go like this:

                   1.  find three new amies every week

                   2.  teach twenty lessons a week

                   3.  have one baptism a month

     My favorite thing about Belgium is most definitely the people. I have been so blessed to be able to love and serve them. They have an interesting culture and they care a lot about their families.......they also make amazing food!!! Such as waffles and chocolate!

     I don't know if I can really pick a favorite companion........they have all touched me in different ways. I think that Elder Wood is by far the most loving and charitable man I have ever met.... Elder Crump was a fantastic leader and very very smart.....Elder Clawson and Elder Fortuna are very very hard workers and also were perfectly obedient.....Elder Kirkland was just awesome and I am still mad that I only got to serve with him for 4 weeks.  He was just an all around good person in every way and we taught very well together.....Elder Porter has a big heart and he is a fighter.  It's hard to get him down and he helps you become a better person, GREAT leader.......Elder Reed  is another all around good guy and it is hard to pick one thing he is good at because he has got a bit of everything!!

        SO ..I hope that answers some questions and I hope y'all get my letters soon!!! Love you lots

Elder Lyons

 

Everything is back to Normal!!

So!

 

    First the good news!  The legality nightmare is basically over!!!  I have been very blessed and lets just say that God was very merciful to me. Normally it takes 2 weeks to get a new passport...however the guy in the embassy pulled some strings for me because he likes missionaries.  He got it for me the very day I came in.   To this day I still don't know how I fixed another rendezvous with the prefecture in France ,before my visa expires and without a visa at all, because you can't recover those after they are stolen.   Apparently my copies were enough!!!! In summary, after a long 2 weeks of running back and forth across the border and avoiding the nasty "fete de wallonie"  (PS if you remember the carnival in Dunkerque......it was kinda like that) we get to start real work again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  

 

 

    We have actually had...(well, if recovering my identity was not a big enough miracle) two super awesome miracles!!!   The first one was that we found a new investigator in the midst of all of this .....crap that we were dealing with! We were headed to a mission leader apointment and this random guy asks us (in english) who we were and where we were from. He didn't understand or know Idaho very well so.... I changed the conversation to French to explain to him where it was.  He was super surprised that we actually spoke French. Turns out this man, named Michel, has had some rough experiences, and used to be a bit ..rough.  One day he got sick of doing all of these bad things like drugs or what not and started studying religions....loads of different ones.  Overall his favorite part was Jesus Christ, and you could tell that he had made a lot of progress in his life!! We taught him a few principles of the apostacy and what Christ did while he was on the earth and the need for prophets and he just loved it!! We have a rendezvous with him at the church this Wednesday!! We also finnally have a rendezvous with Phillipe today and another one with Andrés this Wednesday!!!!! We have got a lot of work to do and a lot of new people to teach so it should be exciting!!

 

    The last miracle happened yesterday!! SANDRINE TOOK CORALIE TO CHURCH!!!! and she really enjoyed it!!! We have seen them progress so much since we found them and Coralie is super pumped to be baptized. This week we are going to finalize all of the plans for her to be baptized in mid October.  I don't really know if I can find words to describe how happy I am for them, and how much they have progressed!!  They are happier and you can see it!! Totally makes up for all of the last few crazy days, bar none!!  IT is amazing to see what the gospel can do in a persons life. Miracles have not ceased and they take place everywhere, even when we feel like everything is goin down the pooper !!

 

I am glad to hear everything is going so well at home.  I am sorry that Meagan pulled her hammy ....thats lame ...I am also sorry that Chris's rommies are.....strange.  Soon you'll be on a mission and you will meet even stranger peeps!!! hehehe .....I am probably not helping....but seriously your not socially akward and I'm sure your rocking it up at the Y....

    Well I loves ya tons and I am excited to send yall some letters this week.  I have literrally hsd no time to do anything the past few weeks  because I was traveling everywhere!!!

P.S. I have everything I need, and yes I recieved my money!!! Thanks Grandpa, you are the best!!!

 

Love Elder Lyons

And the moral of the story is.... Don't let your bag out of sight!

O.K. everyone,  I don't usually do this, but this e-mail needs a little explaining.  Last Thursday Elder Lyons was on the train on his way to do his legality when his bag was stolen.  All of his personal documents were in the bag.  Definitely an "OH, crap" moment. The mission home called to tell me what had happened and my first thought when I heard who was on the line was, he's had a pancreatitis attack and is in the hospital.  I was greatly relieved to know it was just a stolen bag.  Although the paper work is a pain, I am glad it is possible to get it all taken care of while he is there. The lesson he learned, NEVER LET YOUR HANDS OFF YOUR BAG WHILE ON A CROWDED TRAIN!!

    On a more positive note, for you family and friends who have not heard, Chris has been called to serve in the Winnipeg, Canada mission.  He reports Jan. 25th.  He is very excited.  Love ya all, Cyndie

    Well... This e-mail is not going to be the longest of e-mails.  Basically, the sum up of the week is:   I have been running back and forth  between France and Belgium trying to figure out how to solve the problem of having my "identity stolen. "    Long story short, is that missionary work unfortunately took a little bit of a stand still.   Not having a phone also makes things complicated.  We somehow managed to fix a meeting at the US embassy in Brussels this Wednesday after calling them and making personal visits and everything.....(very time consuming btw) and after all the hassle to finally get in they tell me that I have to fix an appointment online.  I can't do it by phone or in person (beings we were already there!)    If you couldn't tell, I was a little frustrated.  I am not to worried and I think everything will work out, but the thing that bothers me the most is how much time it takes away from working!!!!!!

     I am super happy to hear that Chris is soon to be going on his mish!!! Canada! Well that's kinda like France heehee! Man that will be super tight!

     Well I am sorry but I really am exhausted.    I  have not slept hardly at all the past few nights due to all the travel.  I am going to have to stop here.  Know that I am super grateful for all that you have done for me.  I know that loads of you have sacrificed time and money so that I could be out here.  More importantly, your love gives me the energy and drive to keep on chugging even when I don't feel like it! Your awesome and I will do my best to send some letters soon!

 

Elder Lyons

Tired but Happy

I'M SO TIRED!! ( he he he)

 

    This week was just as packed as the last one and it was super awesome!! First of all, we had our last district meeting of last transfer.   We had two new members added to our district. The new couple missionaries, (the Oakelberries.....probably spelled that wrong,) got into Liège last week . Guess where they are from?  IDAHO, YES! They are farmers from Twin Falls and they sold everything to come out here...pretty intense! They asked me if I knew Steven street in good old Pocatello, because that is where their daughter lives.  I said ,"YEP".  They must be in ...I think it is the Parry's ward?  I should ask them what her name is again because we might know them!   Anyways, we taught a SUPER awesome lesson on the atonement and the need to incorporate this principle in every lesson. I felt inspired to teach this after planning.  I remembered a lesson given by Elder Holland at the MTC where he said one of the things the missionaries need to teach better is the atonement.  Sometimes they forget, with all of the other principles that they teach, or maybe they feel like the investigators get that one already.  The atonement should be, and is, the most important thing we should be teaching!!!  IT went VERY well!!! 

      Later that night we had rendezvous with Françoise and also Andrés. We taught the restoration of the gospel through Joseph Smith but focused, even more closely, this time on Jesus Christ and His atonement! The whole reason the restoration is important in the first place, is that it restored lost ordinances and principles of the gospel that help us understand Christ and His atonement more clearly!!! This was the focus of our lessons.  Especially with Françoise, who has been searching for truth for a while.  The spirit was super strong ,and we were able to discern by the spirit, what they needed and where each lesson needed to go!!!  It was sweet!!  We explained the history of Joseph Smith and how hard he was searching and related it to Françoise very well.  We explained how he searched everywhere for truth, loads of different religious sects, the scriptures, and he just was not quite getting it.  But, one day he was inspired after reading in the book of James to ask God what he should do.  What church he should join?, if any!   He did, he prayed and he saw our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ.  He was instructed to join none of the churches because all of them were corrupted.  Many came close to the truth, but had fallen short, due to an inheritance of apostasy after the all of the apostles and church leaders were killed and rejected.  The fullness of the gospel was to be restored.  Joseph was to prepare himself to be the prophet to restore the Church of Jesus Christ.  He was lead to an ancient volume of scriptures, that was preserved by God, that contained the fullness of His gospel, and Joseph translated them by the power of God!!!!   This story is incredible and there is no real physical proof that it is true....except the Book of Mormon. If we read this book and ponder it's teachings, and sincerely ask God, with faith, if it is true, He will reveal unto us that it is indeed true.  But why is that important?  This is what Andrés asked, us in reviewing this lesson. Well, if we receive an answer to our prayers that this book truly is the word of God ,and was translated by Joseph Smith,  that means that Joseph Smith really was called of God to be a prophet, and that He really saw Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. It means that God exists! It means that He does still talk to men on the earth and that He does have a church to help lead and teach us how to become better people and one day return to Him.  This church is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints!!   Both Françoise and Andres agreed to read and ponder the Book of Mormon and to find out for themselves if it was true!!!

     Later this week we had another awesome rendezvous with Sandrine and Coralie. We taught again the story of the restoration, but this time we used images to describe the story! It was sweet! When we got to the images of Christ and taught how he died for our sins and all of our difficulties, Coralie was shocked and asked us," Why would they kill Jesus?"  Wow,  that was a powerful question.  The spirit was just incredible and we finally said we don't know, but he submitted to let them do so because of how much He loves us!!

    This week we are going to fix a baptismal date for her.  We have been so excited to see how much they have progressed!!   The last step is to get them to CHURCH!!!!

    Well loads of other stuff went on this week but I will be sending the details by letter!!!  I love you loads and I CAN'T WAIT TO HEAR WHERE CHRIS IS GOING ON HIS MISSION...CROSS YOUR FINGERS FOR PARIS FRANCE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Love y'all tons!!!

Elder Lyons

Blessings!

Bonjour toute la monde!

 

    So to take care of little stuff first, comme d'hab, Yes I got mom's package and it was AWESOME! Thanks loads! No, I haven't got Lili's packages yet, but I haven't checked mail today so maybe it will be here!? 

 

      SO... This last week was the toughest, most rewarding, flat out tiring, but full of miracles ....WEEK!  Last week we really REALLY focused on finding because our teaching pool has been continually shrinking and shrinking. So we did everything in our power to try and change that.  We prayerfully set goals as to what we should do and where we should go. We went through and visited ALL of the old potential investigators and contacted people on the streets. We went to prayerfully selected neighborhoods and knocked on all of the doors.  We stopped by, every reasonably close, less active and partial member families to try and reactivate them and help them to invite their families to come as well.

    The beginning of the week brought a lot of, "that doesn't interest me" and lots of people had moved.  We walked everywhere during the day so we were exhausted, but we REALLY wanted to find someone, so we just kept on chugging!  On Friday, we just finished climbing a huge hill to look up some old potential investigators but nothing really special came out of  it.  We only had an hour of time left to work, and the temptation came to just head home early and do porting (knocking on doors) in that particular spot later. But, we decided to finish strong, and guess what? A nice lady named Françoise let us in!!! I have only been let in one other time on my whole mission! Most of the time you can only fix a time to return later!! It was a miracle and we could tell that God had prepared her to be taught! She had SO many questions and we didn't have time to answer all of them, but we left her after fixing another rendezvous and giving her a Book of Mormon.  You could tell we left her wanting more!

    And that's not the end of the week! We also recieved loads of refferals from other missionaries and we are going to be teaching Phillipe this week!   He is a man who wouldn't give us his number but said he'd call us back..(.PS never happens...) EXCEPT for this time!!!

    We had a really good rendez vous with Sandrine and Coralie last Saturday. We taught a simple lesson on the plan of salvation, and we used Moroni 7:41 to illustrate how this plan is made possible through Christ and His atonement. We taught how Gods plan is a plan of hope and is centered on the family. That it is through keeping His commandments that we can strenghten our families and learn how to become like our Heavenly Father and obtain the blessings that He has in store for us. It went very well and Coralie wants to be baptised!!  The youth of Namur are on fire, and they are setting an example for the whole ward!

     This week was so sweet!  It was because we did our absolute best to work to the very end and to be optimistic and happily obeying the rules and commandments; even when it got super tough, or tiring ,or whatever else. Try the Lord in all of His commandments and see if He will not open up the windows of heaven and pour His blessings upon you, SO much that you have not room to receive it!! We have to trust our Father and if we have patience we will see the fruit of our labors!!    

  Always know that I love all of you and that your testimonies have strengthened mine even when you are on the other side of the world. I am so grateful for the endless blessings I have had.  To be raised in such an awesome family. I am also so grateful for the trials that I have had that have taught me to trust in my God. I am glad to hear everything is going so well and I look forward to hearing more about y'alls adventures!

 

Love Elder Lyons

Tender Mercies

      WOW! I can't believe Chris is at BYU in basically the same apartment as I was, with basically the same job as I had! That's creepy! He will probably run into a lot of my old friends. Beings he looks a lot like me, things could be very interesting for him! he he! 

       Wow! Junior High huh! That means Rachel can start taking some art classes and stuff, that will be cool.      Meagan is going to dominate running, no questions asked! 

                                                        The Joumotte Family at baptism

                                                             Jason on river bank in Namur

                                                             Castle in Namur

                                              Picture Jason drew for woman that was baptized

                                                                 Bridge in Namur
  What is little Natters doing already in the big grade one eh?! hehe I'm glad to hear she's rockin' purple converses. he he That's pretty tight!

     Anyways, This week went by really fast, which is weird because it was tough!  Andrés baptism would be this week, but we had to reschedule it because of his lack of church attendance recently. We have a rendezvous tonight on the commandments.   We will be clarifying a lot of things and recommitting him to be baptised on a different date.

      This week we did a lot of service, and visits to potential amies ....all of which went nowhere. We also worked a lot with the ward this week, visiting members and discussing the work during CEP meeting.

        We also had to go to Lille un France to do our french legality, which sucked a bit of time. Even though the beginning of the week was very unsuccessful, we did manage to have something totally awesome happen!    

        Last Sunday we met a less active. Sanddrine, and her daughter Coralie, who has not been to church since 2003.  I'm pretty sure everyone has forgotten her. She didn't leave as a result of being offended, but she somehow lost faith in God in general. She said she didn't really know if he exists. She explained that she still had a little something inside that told her that He does, but wasn't quite sure why. We explained that it was the little seed of faith, and that it was it was there to tell her that HE does live and loves her very much! We didn't have to much time to teach much else, but we fixed another rendezvous, much to the excitement of her 9 year old daughter who is not a member.

        Sandrine was kinda skeptical at the first rendezvous and very surprised that we had even showed up.  Apparently she hasn't had any contact with the church for awhile. At the rendezvous last Saturday something had changed! The house,(  which was a disaster), was even cleaner. As we taught a lesson on faith and what it is, and how to obtain it, and in whom we place our faith, both Sandrine and Coralie were very attentive. They asked lots of good questions and the spirit was very strong! We emphasized the importance of exercising our faith in prayer, scripture study, and church attendance, so that we can gain testimonies of our Heavenly Father! We challenged them  this week to pray to know if God was there.  Coralie is a champ, she pleaded with her mom to take her to church and asked what baptism was! So we talked a little bit about baptism as well. Unfortunately they didn't get to church this week.  We almost forgot to fix another rendezvous, but Sandrine very enthusiastically asked us when we were coming back.  She basically fixed another one herself!! We have lots of hope for them!!

      Well, the baptism of the Joumottes is already changing this ward. Tons of less actives are coming more regularly and I am super humbled at the task that Heavenly Father has permitted me to take a part of! It is definitely His work.  Our main job is to get out of our pride and be worthy of His spirit so that He can do His job! The Church is true and it brings true happiness to all of it members.

    I love you all and wish you good luck starting school again! Gross Bisou for everyone!

Love Elder Lyons

Baptism's!

So, first off, the baptism was super awesome!!  Ton's of people that have been less active came to the baptism and everyone was SUPER touched by the spirit!  These boys are setting such a good example for these people.  It has been super awesome to see the re-activation that has taken place because of these young boys decision to be baptized! Confirming them was an interesting experience. On your mission you never use the "tu" form of you, (because it is too casual or something) I'm not quite sure exactly, but when you talk to kids you use it. Needless to say I kept wanting to use the "vous" form during Lloyd's blessing.  I managed to only use the "vous" form  once, so I think they'll forgive me ! 

    This week was full of finding.  We managed to find another family that said we could come back! Unfortunately it has been a little hard to get a hold of some of these newer people, but hopefully we can start to see some of them soon!

    One lady we started teaching is one of those eternal Amie's that pretty much every missionary has taught and she knows everything is true but has something holding her back. We had heard lot's of things about her.  How she was not very confident in herself and loads of everything else.  When we got there (her name is Rosalie btw) she opened up to us a little bit and it turns out that she was REALLY touched by the last missionaries that had taught her.   She made a commitment to stop smoking so that she can be baptized! I think the problem in the past was that everyone had been treating her as if she was super low on self esteem and tried ,probably a little too hard ,to build her up when she really just needed to feel the spirit and have some encouragement as she tried to stop smoking in the past! So we are now going to just help her feel the spirit so that she can overcome this addiction and be baptized!!

    We have a rendez-vous with Andrés this Wednesday and everything is still planned for him to be baptised on the 28th of August. Church attendance has been a problem recently so we are going to have to clarify some stuff with him at this rendez vous, but I have a lot of hope for him.

    SO, our district is pretty much on fire! We just had those two baptisms last Sunday, the sisters in Liège just fixed two baptismal dates, the zone leaders in Liège just fixed one, and we still have the one we fixed with Andrés and possibly one soon to come with Roselie! YEAH miracles!!!! It's been so awesome to work with our district and see how hard they work and be able to bask in each others miracles!

     Well, this e-mail was kinda scrambled and my thoughts aren't very well linked together.  Hopefully y'all got the gist of all the awesomeness going down! I have learned so much on my mission and I am amazed at how much I keep learning.  Every time I start to think that I have learned something ,MORE stuff comes up and I learn even more! This is God's church and He loves all of His children and has provided a plan for all of us to feel a fullness of joy in this life, so as to give us hope that we can obtain this fullness of joy on whole new level in the life to come!

     I love all of you.  Tell Joe ....wow, I mean Elder Weatherford that he is awesome! I love him...but I can't send emails.....lame I know but I have his address and I am sending a letter! Y'all are sweet and I hope this week is just awesome!

Miracles in Namur

     Alrighty, just to answer some questions first! Yes dad, a lot of the french people talk that funny up north!  Maybe now y'all can see how hard it is every time a missionary moves.  Depending upon where he or she goes, he could be going to a different country even, and even just in France there are so many different accents and new phrases to get used to!!  Also, no I don't want the red shirt back.  It didn't cost much money to buy those things, all of that stuff was on sale .....sending it was a different story.  Yes the art book of mine should be coming soon as well. It should be very useful for my art classes later!

    ummmmm OH! Elder Reed is from Riverton, Utah and our favorite pastime is singing random songs in french throughout the day!

     OK!  So this week was jammed with stuff! First off! We got a surprise call from the zone leaders right after I finished my e-mails last week.  They told us that we needed to go to Paris (last Tuesday) for a leadership training! It was really sweet. Most of it was focused on what the goals of our mission were and how to obtain them in each of our districts. That being: to start breaking down the walls that separate the missionaries and the members and to really start getting them involved in the work.

    President Ponzanski and his wife are super awesome and I have loved working with them and their inspiration!

     I also got to see all of my old companions, beings they are all leaders of some sort!

    So the following day was district meeting.  It was just a tad bit more stressful cause the AP's were there, but it went super well and we had a really good lesson on how to get our wards involved.  We incorporated a lot of what we learned in training!  So with all of that, we traveled a ton this week and I think it is safe to say, "I hate trains!!! "    Alas it's better than not being able to get to sleep!   My insomnia is much better btw.

 

    The rest of the week was just as crazy! We have found some more potentials to teach and the  coolest miracle was a man named Phillipe that we met at a bus stop! I saw him walking up and I said "bonjour comment ça va" (Hi, How are you?)and he answered " bah ça va" (I am well) and I said "meme pendant tout la pluie!" ( even with the rain?)  That kinda made him smile and we just kept talking to him in just a normal conversation. Of course he sees the plaque on my shirt and I  know he is wondering what in the world we are, so I introduced ourselves as missionaries. Then he just started asking tons of questions.  Like "what separates us from other churches?" and all that jazz.  We taught him about Christ's ministry on earth and what He accomplished here. Namely the atonement and also establishing His church.  Then we taught him about the apostasy and how after centuries of being lost God called another prophet, Joseph Smith, to restore lost truths so that we could enjoy the fullness of our Heavenly Fathers gospel plan! We also introduced the Book of Mormon and gave him one.   He was just loving it! I tried to get his address or something and offered him our number and he took it, but he wouldn't give us his number or anything. He said he was going to call us, but we have all heard that a thousand times, and that just means they don't really want to do anything more.......right? Wrong! Two days later we got a random call and guess who it was! PHILLIPE! He said he REALLY want's to learn more about the church and have us come over to teach him after he finishes his exams on the 25th of August.  So,  we will be going to chez Phillipein a couple of weeks, YEAH miracles!

     We also finished all the lessons with the Joumottes kids and they are super pumped for their baptism this Saturday! These kids are setting a great example for their family and are doing wonders for them! Their dad had been inactive for awhile but has now become very active and absolutely on the ball. Although he was skeptic of us and the leadership of the church,  he now trusts, and even likes us.  Life is pretty much sweet!

    We also saw Andrés and he has been reading and praying and progressing! He is your normal teenager and it was hard to convince him that church stuff was important.  He is very bright and he is preparing himself to be baptized on the 28th of this month. There is still some work to be done but we are doing all we can to help everyone out the best way possible!

 

Well y'all are awesome! Like always, and I will catch you soon!

Love,

Marathon Week!

I don't even really know where to start. I can't believe that Ben Moore has already got his call! Hawaii totally seems fitting for Ben.  I just keep thinking of surfer bums being converted by Ben's chillish attitude, he he!

     Chris is going to college. What a joke! Why is everyone getting old and stuff?

    Well this week was full of a little bit of everything. First off, there is a less active family that we had been trying to get a hold of FOREVER, because they expressed the desire to have their kids baptized, but their actions didn't really express their desires.  Me and Elder Wood spent the entire last transfer getting no where with them.  This week I just felt like stopping by their house, instead of calling them or talking to them the few times they were at church. We stopped by and apparently it was a miracle that everyone was home.  They said that normally they were super busy.                   Nevertheless the kids are SUPER tight and really want to be baptized.  We have since started the lessons and they will be baptized the 13th of August!  It's super cool to see how much good this is doing for a family who had been struggling a bit.  Now they are taking action and basically are AWESOME!

    We also had a super powerful rendezvous with Andrés about the simple commandments of reading scriptures, praying, and going to church. He is such a teenager, and well ...reading books just aint his thing.  We explained "why" we do all these things and "why" we keep the commandments.  How they help us develop a relationship with our Heavenly Father, and how all these things are for us. Not something to bore us to death, but actually there to improve our lives. He took it a lot more seriously and we fixed a baptismal date for the 27th of August!

    There are so many miracles going down in Namur and it is super exciting!   We just keep on finding new people to teach as well!     We have only had two weeks out of the last two tranfers where we haven't found someone else to teach.  The week afterward made up for it, and we found two to three more!

    We recently just found a man and the end of a porting session ( knocking on doors).  It was really rough.  We had been yelled at and slammed on all night but we just kept at it and then at this door the man answered by saying Je vous écoute!  I'm listening.   Elder Reed explained who we were and that we are here to share a message about Christ and he said....well I got to go in 5 minutes so.......come back tomorrow and you can teach me then! So I immediately got out the Book of Mormon and was like, well here, read this before we come back.  After explaining what it was, he said, "sure, why not have a wonderful night and see ya tommorow!"

     That's not all that happened this week. We have also been teaching English classes and there is one lady named Daisy who REALLY want's to keep up her English. She actually speaks very well but she had heard that there were missionaries that were from america that also did English stuff from one of our members.  That member passed her coordinates to us and we started teaching her English. So, for our last lesson we read from a talk by Elder Ucthdorf to work on pronounciation. Beings we have nothing else in English to read but church stuff, we were kinda hoping we could use that to maybe spark interest in the gospel hehe!

    Not really expecting anything to happen, we got there and went with the plan and read through the talk.  She really liked it and we ended up answering a lot of questions about the church and basically taught a short lesson on the restoration of the gospel! It was awesome! Every lesson we've had so far, she has started to ask us more and more questions related to the gospel.  I bet you she will soon want to learn more about the gospel as well! Yeah, somewhat sneaky english stuff!     Oh another thing, I have just noticed that I have given a ton of blessings in French recently. There are a few less active families that we have been working with that are doing really well at coming back, and I have been asked to give them blessings when they have been struggling. It is absolutely amazing to see the power of the priesthood and the love of our Heavenly Father for these precious sons and daughters through these blessings, and also to see how powerfully we can speak the language. I still can't remember all of what I said, but I become very humbled every time to see what God can do with as weak of an instrument as I am!

    It is so awesome to be a missionary and be Gods servant and be able to serve my brothers and sisters and bless their lives. I LOVE IT!