OK sorry letters haven't gotten there yet! We never got a chance to send out stuff until like Friday, because we have been traveling a TON!!!!! They should get there this week though!
   I think I just decided I hate traveling. hehe  Not really, but we went to Calais for P-day, trains were terrible so we ended up being there for a while. We had a stake conference in Lille, and again had train troubles and had to go to Calais! Then we had to go all the way to Nantes for a medical visit for my french legality!  (P.S.  Explaining pancreatic health issues as complicated as mine in french is not very easy!!!!)  But everything went well and I passed all the health exams. I am legal ......for now! 

        It took 11 hours by train to get there and back.  We had to run to the train the second time because my legality took so long!!!!!!  Needless to say I am very tired for not accomplishing much of anything.  A result of having very little time in our own ville to do anything!

        We only taught one lesson the entire week.  We got frujjed (french missionary talk for stood up) all week long. I have  had a rough time this week feeling like a really good missionary.

     This has been one of the strangest transfers I have ever had. We have somewhere close to 10 amies, but only 4 of them are progressing! The others won't ever fix rendezvous with us! Two of those 4 progressing amies are Chinese and had no concept of what and who God is, because they had never heard about Him until they came to France! It has been a miracle to see Tao and Tia progress from that background to where they are now! They believe in God and they read the scriptures, pray and go to church! They are probably the most humble people I have met on my mission.  As  a result,  it has provided fertile soil for the word of Christ to be planted in their hearts.  It has begun to swell and grow within them! Now, we are just helping them  to recognize that these swelling motions are coming from God, and continually helping them progress!  Tao was the only lesson we got, but I think it made our entire week!

        Our training in Bruxelles was really helpful in teaching us how we could improve our teaching! One thing that has helped us out a lot is really focusing on our amies and listening to them.  Not worrying at all about what we need to say because the minute we worry about what we need to say, our focus turns to us and  then we have no idea what to say.  BUT, when we really listen, the words will be given to us in the very second we need them! And I can testify that this is true!

         We had a really good lesson with Tao on faith, and how we can know if God exists. After me and Elder Kirkland finished talking for a while, Elder Kirkland looked over at me after saying something, and I just sat there for a second.  I felt like I should ask Tao what he has learned from us and past missionaries, why he started seeing them, and who God is  to him.  Basically his answer fit perfectly into the situation the great missionary Aaron ,in the Book of Mormon, had when he taught King Lamoni. He said he noticed something very special about the way the people with faith carried themselves, especially during hard trials.  He really believes in science, but nothing there had really given him the answers he wanted or nail down answers to questions such as : where we come from?  where we are going? why we are here etc. He saw something extra special with the missionaries and took it upon himself to study our beliefs because he said that he wants to have faith! He wants to know who God is! Basically he told us everything we could possibly want to hear. 

         We have another rendezvous with him tomorrow so I will keep y'all posted on that.

    In answer to moms questions:
   1)  My favorite thing about Dunkerque is the work, and the people I have been lucky enough to meet.
   2) I don't need anything. I only have one SD card ,so I guess I could use another and getting pictures to ya would be faster, but I will let y'all decide.
  3) Actually, yesterday we got lost and found the most beautiful beach and took loads of pictures! It was at a gorgeous port town called Grand Fort. In answer to the question, no ,I haven't been sight seeing on p-days but basically everyday is sight seeing!
                                                Well I hope all is well and I  loves y'all lots!
                                                                          Elder Lyons

Dear peeps who actually read this stuff.....( ok I am tired )

ANYWAYS,

    This week was SUPER busy! We spent two days in Belgium for training with the president. We hit really hard on getting our investigators to do the basics: PRAY, READ, AND GO TO CHURCH! It was really good! It also just so happened, that every companion I have had so far was at this conference.  It was pretty much a party!!

    Thursday was a tough day of porting all day and people rackin on us pretty hard.   We did manage to set up a couple of rendezvous, and I won't lie, I had to take a break and just pray because I dont think I have really had a porting session as rough as that one. I got on my knees and I just stayed there for a minute. I plied with my Father to know if I was doing my best and if there was something lacking in the work because of anything we were or were not doing.  This was probably one of the more intense prayers I have had.  I really wanted to know what more I could do, and I diffinately knew I could improve,( I can always improve) but my answer came and it was very simple, but also very powerful! Be patient, goods things will come if you continue and are diligent.

     Well, story of our life, especially this saturday! IT was STINKIN cold, and we were out for like 3-4 hours in the worst rain I have ever had on my mission.  We hadn't seen anything go our way! BUT, we kept going and with our last passback we found Aristide! and he is GOLDEN! He has met with missionaries for a while and he is catholic. He thinks there is false doctrine in all churches (meme dans son eglise), and it is our resposibililty to discern the true from the false. So that's what he did and he basically believed whatever he felt was true and relied on the bible for things that were shifty! THE most interesting thing was when we started asking him what he believes.  We were suprised to see that he basically believes in the same doctrine of the church as us! He told us to come over whenever, and he REALLY wants to study the Book of Mormon!!!!!     YEAH patience!! Today we had a stake conference in Lille and we had to sleep over at Calais to catch a ride....needless to say me and Elder Kirkland didn't get much sleep cause stinkin Calais snores like a couple of banshees! Oh well, I figure if you ain't tired on your misssion you ain't doing it right!        

 

    uummmmm, We had a really tight rendez vous with Tia! I don't remember if I have told y'all about her! She is an amie that Kirkland and Nelson found last transfer. At the beginning she didn't even know who God was, let alone ever heard the name of Christ. This is because she is from China! Now she believes in God and Christ.  Elder Kirkland and I are teaching her about prayer and how we can really have a connection to our Heavenly Father and gain a testimony for ourselves to know that he exists!!! This particular rendezvous was SUPER powerful!!! We started off by reading Alma 22 where Aaron is teaching King Lamoni, (someone who did not have much of a concept of who God was), about who God is, His plan for us, and how we could know that for ourselves. Then we followed the spirit in asking her a lot of inspired questions. She said she believes that God exists but she didn't really know how and wasn't completly sure. We testified how she could be absolutely sure through prayer.  We shared experiences we had with prayer and emphasied how we really have a connection to our Heavenly Father. Then we followed up on how he answers our prayers through thoughts in our mind and feelings in our heart which turned out being a lot of what she needed to hear! It was super!!!!

    Well I got to go, but I loves y'all lot's and hope all is well, cehz nous!

Life is really not hard

Wow, I love the picture of Dad!  (hehehe )  I wish I had Spongebob pj's like that! And since when have all my sisters gotten SO beautiful! You are all growing up too fast! Yes Chris your beautiful too!

    I can't believe you heard Elder Spicer speak!  I did get to meet him for a little while, and he was a stellar elder!  I also have ,of course, met John Paul. He is a recent convert who likes to goof off with the missionaries. He is pretty tight!

     I am sending a letter with my SD card in it.  It should have pictures of Le Mans, Nivelle and Dunkerque, but you will have to pull up some differently, because I have a lot of other elders photos saved on a different file that can't be pulled up with a camera.  I think the file name is, "stolen."

     So this week has been very .....well lets just say I have learned a lot this week.  

    At the beginning of the week ,we had my favorite district meeting/finding activity! The zone leaders gave the training. The theme was: If you are not happy or having fun, you are not doing your mission right!  The message we share is the happiest message ever, and should fill you with unspeakable joy, and you should have a blast doing it!  They expressed how contacting is so much more successful if your happy!  After the training I was super pumped!  In less than an hour our little group of 6 elders, set up two rendezvous, got 10 numbers, and gave out 9 Book of Mormons!  I went with Elder Caywood because we were on exchanges, and we were just having a ball talking to everyone!  We met some really cool people.....and some really interesting people as well!  The best contact was the last one of course!  After we had talked for awhile, I bore my testimony of the Book of Mormon and how it helped me get through experiences with pancreatitis and when my mom had cancer, and he was really touched.  I don't think I have ever felt the spirit so strong in a street contact. It was so cool! Later that day I went to Lille with Elder Caywood for the rest of the exchanges. We had a rendezvous later that day but we had about a half an hour until it started, and basically Elder Caywood said, " well, we can go up early or we can go find someone."  I said ,"let's do it!"  No one was out on the street and it looked like this was not  going to be the best use of 30 minutes. But, I randomly felt like knocking on someones door....so i did!  We talked to this family for 15 minutes at the door and they initially wanted nothing to do with us, but the spirit was SO strong when we talked to them. They said they were Catholic but they opened up to us and said that they had been very doubtful about if God was really there or not. Especially with all the crap going on, and we boldly testified that there is a god and that we need trials for our experience and many other things. We ended up only giving them a card with our number on it, and they said we could come back later.  WOW that was powerful so we kept doing that for the rest of the time we had, and had some really cool contacts!

    Ummmm, Oh this Sunday an amie named Andre finally came to church. We taught him a recap of the restoration by watching the film. Then we basically shared our conversion stories with him and testified of the Book of Mormon.  It was probably the most powerful rendezvous I have had for a long time! He loved it! And he basically bore testimony to us about prayer and how that was the only way to know if anything is true and  how he was going to do that when reading the Book of Mormon. He was excited to do so because he had nothing but good feelings about our  message. He is a stud!

     P.S.  Thank you so much Grandpa for that scripture you shared with my family and me! It really gave me a new perspective. I have read that story about Ammon and Aaron and all of the other sons of Mosiah SO many times, but I cannot even express how hard it hit me the last time I just read it! I wish I could explain but I think I will just have to tell ya in a letter because I got's to head.         Well, I loves y'all lots.  Keep your pants on pictures are on their way! hehe
                                            love elder lyons

OHH MAN!

OK,   So TON'S has happened in the last week and I don't even know where to start!........ First off ,YES ,  Grandma I got your package and it was AWESOME!  Me and Fortuna loved it.  I thought I had written a letter for ya but I probably forgot to get it out.....no worries I will send you one today with my families letter!

     Oh, apparently I just got your package Mom. (hehe)  Elder Nelson gave me a call this morning saying that there were Rees's in there and he was having a hard time not opening it.  We have a training in Bruxelles so we will meet them there!

    Well I have a new companion. His name is Elder Kirkland, and he is well.. I can't think of anything other than good to describe him!  He is just super nice and HARD working.  AAHH  I love it!  He is from Cali and he was in the same group as Elder Crump.

     Well first off ,good news and bad news.  I just heard about Le Mans! First bad news.....Helene is not getting baptized and I don't know if and when she will. Tough situation! Good news, Alex is getting baptized! AND, so is STEVE ,YESSSSSS!!!!!!!  Oh I love Steve!  He was so tight!  I guess Elders Wood and Coelette finally got a rendez vous with him and were like ,"hey, we need you to get serious, we've heard good things about you."  He was all," well hey I am serious. I wanna get baptized!"  OK let's get serious. hehe!  

     Alex has been going to church since me and Elder Clawson started teaching him and he is stellar.  They both should be getting baptized within the next couple of weeks! Yeah miracles! 

    Nivelle is actually looking really great now too! When me and Elder Fortuna started we had ABSOLUTELY nothing to work with! 0 amies and LOT'S of contacting! But before I left we found 4 amies and 10 potential amies who wanted us to come and teach them! 

     Enough about those places!   DUNKERQUE is BEAUTIFUL!  I have ran on the beach!!!!!  Oh man!, the soft pitter patter of my feet on the sand with the soft fall of the waves, plus the fact that it is France, equals a very happy elder!              Contacting on the beach is something else too! However, there are a lot of older people here that are atheist because of the war! IT'S so sad, because they have had it SOOOO rough.  They don't know I can see how much they wish it was true, but they all fear death and think that it's the end.  It's is just sad!

    OH, the ward....I mean branch is SUPER tiny! Like 20 members.....maybe!  Hummmmm other things.. OH, we had some really cool porting experiences  our first two days here!  The best one was Saturday morning.  After studies we prayed by the big map to find out where we should go finding. I was not expecting any shining lights on the map but for some reason we both felt like we had to go to a certain spot! We took the bus and headed out ,and it turns out we took the wrong one, so we got off and started walking to it. Well we got close to the place but we felt like going down this really dinky road with about idk 25-30 houses on it. The first few houses were your normal I've seen too much and won't change, old people, but we knocked on this one door where a lady came very slowly with her cane and greeted us. I don't remember what our normal approach was, but she got really quiet and started to cry because she has been in and out of the hospital for like 26 years. This made believing in God hard! It was very humbling..... I explained to her that I had a tiny taste of what that was like and also my mom as well.  It was hard for me, but I explained the joy and comfort I had that came from the Book of Mormon and the knowledge that I could be with my family after this hard life.  I explained that I knew everything would be worth it!  She was more than happy to take a Book of Mormon and we did whatever we could to offer service to her.  She said she has someone to help her. But holy cow!, we are going to see her later!

     We also ported into a really nice lady who was holding her little boy and talked about families! She was sooo cool and very receptive! We gave her a Book of Mormon and fixed a rendezvous for this week! YEAH miracles!           

     By the way, the carnival is not something we can go to,  hehehe . We actually have to leave Dunkerque and go to Lille for three days because it is dangerous for missionaries.  Hehehe crazy drunk people.

     Anyways,  I love it here and I have a letter for granny and hopefully some others as well coming! Oh, and no mom I don't have any medical problems and I don't no why you have been worrying about me, because I feel pretty good sooo je ne sais pas!

*loves yall lots*

elder lyons