Baptisms!

      Well, we have some really big news for this week! First off, I think I already told you that Tao is going to be baptized at the end of April.  Before he goes back to China!

    Another miracle!  As I'm sure you are aware, there is virtually no missionary work being done in China, other than Hong Kong.  There are a like 2 or 3 churches on the coasts.  And it turns out, that one of those three, just so happens to be where he is moving!!!!! He will actually be able to go to church in china as a member of our church!!!

    MORE BIG NEWS!!!!! We fixed a baptismal date for Tia to be baptized on the 16th of April! At first she was a little nervous and said she didn't know all of the commandments, or if she could keep them all.  So, we taught her all of them on the spot, and she realized that she already keeps pretty much all of them! We also taught her that just because you are baptized doesn't mean that your expected to be perfect! The greatest gift we have on this earth is repentance, and baptism is the first step to a continual cycle of repenting, and becoming closer and closer to God! When we repent, we give up bad habits and pick up good ones! Repentance is change! Repentance is growing! And repentance is becoming more and more like our Father in Heaven! After she realized that baptism was just the first step to a really important process, and that even though she didn't know everything, she knew enough. And when she realized she could continue to learn, she felt relieved.  Now we are working with her to obtain that goal of baptism!
    Other news........I have been really trying to figure out how I can get this branch to be on fire! I want them to be happier, because some times they seem lonely and sad.   The baptism's should help but me and Elder Porter have made it a goal to try and see one member family week.   We want to just hit them all with the love bomb and get them pumped about life and the gospel.
    I am so happy Joe got his papers!!!  That is so exciting ! Dallas Texas! I love it! Tear it up Joe!

    I am also excited for Meagan and choir you'll do great.....

    P.S.  Stop being sick it is no fun!

                            ummmm well, I loves y'all lot's ! Good things are happening!
Love
Elder Lyons
(PS Tao and Tia both have BOMs in mandarin but if you could somehow find a Bible in mandarin they would be super excited!)

Miracles In Dunkerque!

Well, first of all, NATTY stop growing up!    You change every time I get a new picture of you, you cute little turkey!

     Wow, Chad is the man! Those bathrooms are amazing!

    Dang it I wish we were at the apartment when Dan went by, but to be honest it is probably(well OK it is definitely) against the rules.  We were out working.  You can tell him he doesn't need to be jealous, because as nice as some of the apartments are, ours is a dive!  IT is the smallest apartment I have ever been in, but I love it!  The view is amazing!  I will send pictures though, if you don't believe me!

     Chris that is freaking tight, first place!  I always got so close ,but never could quite get first! 

     Rachel those are the tightest sugar babies I have ever seen!  Meagan....you're just awesome

    ...ANYWAYS, My new comp Elder Porter is sweet! We have pretty much destroyed the area book.  Meaning, we've done a ton of pass backs to update and reorganize ,and see who is still interested.  We have met a ton of cool people in doing so!

    We also had the best rendezvous with Tao! We followed up on his commitment to read and pray to see if God was really his heavenly father. And  he did everything! He said he always feels very peaceful when he prays, and he is developing a habit for it! I testified to him that this is the way the spirit answers our prayers. i told him that it was exactly how I had felt when I prayed to understand why my mother was going through cancer, and if everything would be alright! Then we read through Moroni 7 together and expounded everything. We then asked some inspired questions to see what he understood! He understood pretty much everything, and often testified to himself that what was being said was true!  I love it when that happens! 

    When we read through the verses that tell us to lay hold on every good thing he asked us how we do that. We explained that through Christ comes every good thing, and if we have faith on Him we can lay hold on every good thing. We just need to obey Him and follow his example! The verses right after that proceed to explain how we can have faith in Him and set everything up perfectly! We explained how God calls prophets to help us have faith in him, and also missionaries and many other ways he help us to have faith in Him! He even sent Christ as our perfect example!

     At the end of the verse that talked about baptism, We asked him to fix the goal of being baptized on the 16th of April, and he said that would be great! IT WAS A POWERFUL lesson! I am so pumped for him!

     Well, I'm sorry this is so short, but the computer is really failing right now so i am gunna have to leave.   I loves y'all lots !  Keep up the good work and  je t'aime!!!
                                            Love, Elder Lyons

I'M STAYING IN DUNKERQUE!!

So I am about done with my week here in Calais.  I will be heading to Dunkerque this Wednesday to continue my wonderful adventures ,à la bas ,with Elder Kirkland's MTC comp., Elder Porter.  I can't wait to get back to work there!  Calais was great and all, but I definitely miss Dunkerque.  

    OK, quick little things to get outta the way!  I forgot to ask Pres. about giving out our number, but I am pretty positive I cant.  The church address in Dunkerque is: (Rue de Bruxelles, Coudekerque Branche---name of the tiny town ) If you are wondering why there isn't a number, it's  because it doesn't have one.  It is a super tiny street and kinda hard to find.  If you can get to the street, you cant miss it!  Tomorrow we have to come back to write a quick e-mail to President, so I can get better directions to you then.

    Anyways, This week in Calais we did a ton of less active work.  We officially re-activated a sister in Saint Omer and got her to engage in the quit smoking program!  She has come to church the past three weeks in a row since the Elders here have started seeing her! She is super nice!

    We went on splits with an old guy who took elder Decker with him and taught his neighbors.  Me and elder Kellett went porting.   This old guy just walks up to his neighbors houses and basically goes proselyting every day.  He is so stinking tight!

    Then we also got to spend one day in Dunkerque, but I was only able fix one rendezvous, which was with Tia!  We had a really good lesson on prayer and we asked her to really commit to praying every day.   We talked about  how to pray more meaningfully, and how we can receive answers.  She says she already has and knows that God lives!!!  OK, well the student has become the master!!!!!! We are gonna try and commit her to baptism  after the next lesson about the commandments!

    After all of this, we had to clean both of the apartments for the next transfer.  This took quite awhile, but it is finished and life is going good!

    Sorry this weeks e-mail is so short, but we have only one computer and three elders.  I went last, after they spent three hours here, so I had a lot of time to write letters.  Hopefully those will get there soon!!!!

    Well I love all of y'all and I AM SO PUMPED FOR YA             JOE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                            Elder Lyons

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Big news!

    Dunkerque is dead.......Well OK, not really but let me explain! Last Sunday my wonderful comp Elder Kirkland got a call from president! Of course when we saw his name on the phone we almost crapped ourselves!  Luckily it was for Kirkland! He got a call to be the new intendant (french for treasurer) in the office! And because we can't be in Dunkerque this week anyways (due to crazy drunk people during the carnival this week).  Elder Kirkland left for Versailles early!!!! In fact, he left last Friday!

     AHH,  I wish could have a comp for more than one transfer. Especially with Elder Kirk because we had some righteous times, and accomplished a lot of work!

    Needless to say, I am now in Calais with Elders Decker and Kellett until the end of the transfer.  I won't find out where I'm going until this Saturday unless I receive another surprise phone call from the pres.  I really hope that doesn't happen because I don't really want to be a DL or ZL or whatever else.  Well.. I could do it ,but I think you understand. 

     Anyways, I will be able to work with E. Kellett and Decker in Dunkerque on Thursday after carnival is over. This way we can still teach our amies and keep the work pumping!

    OK, so here is the big story of the week! Last Tuesday was our last district meeting, because Elder Kirkland was district leader and he left the following Friday.  Anyways ,after the meeting we had exchanges and I went back to Dunkerque with E. Kellett! Things were pretty normal. We went contacting for and hour and met a Jehovah's witness who basically tried to argue with us the whole time so we had to drop it.  Every one else we contacted wanted nothing to do with what we were doing.   We laughed later at how crazy it was. 

    We had a CEP meeting that night that we had to leave early so we could get to TAO's house! This is where things got amazing! We started by teaching a really basic plan of salvation, and focused a ton on WHO IS GOD and WHY WE ARE HERE and JESUS CHRIST and His Atonement! I started by using Acts 17 where they are preaching to the Athenians when they noticed that they had a altar devoted to THE UNKNOWN GOD. They then proclaimed that this unknown God who they were ignorantly worshipping is, literally ,our heavenly father and we are his offspring;  therefore we aught not to think that He is like unto gold or silver or something of mans device. I felt like this related really well to his situation. Last time we were there he opened up to us and said that he felt like there was something out there that is greater than us, that helped create us, earth, and everything.  He didn't have the opportunity to have religion in his life because he lived in China and he felt like he really missed out on something important. He saw that people who had faith had something really special. Especially the missionaries, and he wants to have faith as well.

    So I introduced this scripture by saying that the Athenians also believed that there was some unknown force that did all of these things. They ignorantly worshipped him because they didn't know who he was. Thus, the idol to the unknown god. But, missionaries who where called of God (like us) were sent to declare unto them who this unknown god was, namely the apostles!

    We expounded it and explained how we really are Gods offspring and He really is our Father and that he has a plan for us! He is a perfected glorified being and wants the same blessings as he has! HE created a plan for us to accomplish this! This is why he created a place for us to live and learn and grow! It is like a big school for us to learn how to have the same blessings he has. Namely by keeping the commandments! The commandments are what makes God, God; and also how we can learn more about Him! We explained the need for an atonement and how Christ did that for us!

    He ate it all up and had wonderful questions! Elder Kellet is only in his 2nd transfer but he was on fire ( always is ) and bore powerful testimony of Christ and the existence of god! We left him with the commitment to read Moroni 7 and 3 NE 11-14 and to pray to know if God existed, and if this was his plan for us, and if Christ did all of those things for us! If you remember, the Nephi chapters are a very good description of who Christ is and what he did for us and all of the things that are expected  of us. Then Moroni 7 is probably one of the best descriptions of how we can "find" God!     ALL IN ALL  it was an amazing lesson!!! Tao is amazing!

    Anyways the excitement  doesn't stop there. By this time it was almost 10 o clock and I realized as we got to our apartment that I left the keys in the apartment and  had locked us out!!!!  Yes, I did feel stupid in case you were wondering.  Usually there is a member that has a spare key.  Not in our branch! So, after I had called all of the people who would have known if there was a spare key somewhere, I had to call President Staheli

    SO after trying like 5 hotels ,all of which were full because of the frigging carnival!  By this time it was past eleven, so we headed to Jean Pauls and he was more than happy to let us in and spend the night! He did tease me a bit and told me that "jai pas la tete " but I totally deserved it. he he

    Anyways I got a locksmith (because an awesome member got it all taken care of ) and we got back safe and sound. $90 euros later! (about $114.00) woo!! 

     This story has been spreading like wild fire. Everyone is jealous that we stayed at Jean Pauls because he is pretty amazing. But as nice as it was, I woulda rather not have felt like a tard for forgetting the keys . But alas, crap happens!

       I loves y'all so much and I don't know if I can give you the Dunkerque number.  If it got cleared with president first I will be more than happy to see Dan Hegsted because he is pretty much amazing!!  I see President tomorrow and I guess I could ask him then. I don't  know how that will fly but I guess it is worth trying. Well,  have a wonderful day .  And WOW, Hyrum is huge!

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Finally some new pictures!!

Jason with member( I'm not sure if this is in Nivelle or Le Mans)

Jason in bed with district Elders!!  Say What???

Chapel in Nivelles

View from apartment window in Nivelles

District with President Staheli and his wife

Jason with Pres. and Sis. Staheli