Sick of being sick!

OK, tiny things outta the way first. Yes, I got the new suitcase.  It was about 80 euros.  The other money was spent for train tickets. Unfortunately me and Elder Porter have been really sick this week.  We both fell asleep on the train home from Calais.  We ended up, well needless to say, we weren't in Dunkerque anymore.   I had to use my debit card because we hadn't been reimbursed from our last tickets we bought yet! We also ate out for my birthday.

       I have received moms package with the undies and goodies and hug; and grandmas packages with the books and spices and loads of other goodies. Aunt Lili's must be on the way!   If you could send some Thai curry paste, that would be heavenly!

      It is always good to hear from y'all and I have felt all of your prayers for me! I sent a letter for Ryan.  I don't remember their address, so it is in with your letter. I also sent along something for Ben Moore!

    Tell Ryan he is a stud and that He is in my prayers. I don't think I had it quite that bad.  What I did have was not that exciting, so I can only imagine. But I do know that Ryan will be so blessed and will become nothing but stronger from this difficulty. He is superman!

       This week we did a TON of contacting !  Well.. really nothing but contacting! This week we had a zone fast for finding new amies.  It consisted of every team in the zone to have a day to fast. On that particular day, we specifically consecrated it to do nothing but finding. We want to show our faith, that we are ready to find the people God has prepared for us!

    Our day was last Saturday, aka my birthday! YES, I know what your thinking. Fasting on your birthday, quel blogue!  But it was the best. (and yes mom i made sure i had water so my pancreas wouldn't freak out)

    Anyways, we started the day by reading from the Book of Mormon in French and read through the first book of Nephi.  We made a goal to finish the French Book of Mormon by the end of the transfer! IT was so GOOD! Then we went contacting from 11:30 to 6:00.  Whew! it was a long day and we gotta a lot of ca m'interese pas (I'm not interested).  But we did manage to find a super sweet lady with her baby and got to talk to her about the family and our relationship with God.  We gave her a book of Mormon and all that goodness!

     IT was a little rough to work that entire day and only find a couple that were interested, but we felt so accomplished and satisfied with all that hard work!  And super dead as well!!!!

      Anyways, we capped that off with an awesome meal at some country steakhouse, (best hamburgers ever) and had birthday cake at a less active members house!

     We have been doing a lot of finding and teaching on the streets. We haven't seen a lot of immediate success.  If there is one thing I have learned from back at home it is: that hard work, plus LOADS of patience, equals miracles. So that is what we are doing and will continue to do!

                    I love y'all loads and am glad your kicking off the summer with so much fun.    I love y'all
                                              Elder Lyons

Dear peoples!

      This week was crazy!  We started it off with a lot of traveling around, blah! We had a training in Lille with the zone, and everyone in Belgium.  I got to see all my buds, so that was pretty sweet.  President gave a wonderful training on becoming perfectly obedient and giving ourselves completely to the work! It was awesome!

      So, we have expressed our concern about our branch and their home teaching, and they still haven't really expressed any desire to it.  We have, at least, been able to get them to see the importance of going to see a FEW of the less actives .   We'll see what happens.

      This week we received a call from the proprietor of our apartment. He said  that they were selling the complex to a new proprietor, so they wanted to see our apartment. Needless to say, we had to spend quite a bit of time cleaning the place.  Some past missionaries had done some damage to this poor place. Oh well, at least it's clean now!

          We had an awesome rendez vous with a part member family this week. The Arcara family. The husband is less active.  The husband is less active because he doesn't agree with some of the doctrine of the church.  Since I have been here, his heart has changed ALOT!  He wants to come back to church and grow to understand the doctrine!  His wife is catholic and SUPER sweet. She is really into sign language and even taught us a few signs. I have actually been to their house a few times, but she never sat in until last week.  We got to meet her and had shared a good spiritual thought with them that sparked LOADS of conversation. We hope to be able to work more with them.  Hopefully some more good will come from that. 

          We are also starting to have a few people come up to us randomly and ask us questions about God. These people want to learn more! Yeah, hard work pays off! I have found that most times you show God you are willing to contact for a long sum of time and nothing grand happens.  You still do your best and then later, when you aren't even contacting, people come to you!

     Well, the work is going well and we are doing our best to follow up on all of these opportunities God is giving us.  Good things are gonna come from it!

     I loves you loads!   I just finished letters for y'all, so as soon as I can find a post I will send it out!

Love Elder Lyons

Great Week!

This week was crazy!  First off, I got the most amazing b-day gift from grandma Johnson.  I am loving that talk on charity! Thanks grandma, it meant a lot to me and really touched me! Especially the quote by CS Lewis, about giving our natural selves completely away and Christ giving of himself to us! SO SWEET.  Thanks ma, for the awesome prom pics of Chris!!! HE looks so cute and sexy!!!!

     Anyways!  This week we had our first English class at Pizza Hut! ( For those of you who have not heard of this awesomeness, let me explain.)  So this guy named Adam owns this new Pizza Hut that we eat at a lot. HE LOVES US!  We talk to him all the time and he gives us free pizza and drinks and all that jazz. Well, one day while we were eating there, he asked us if we could teach English to him and his employees. And maybe go get a drink at Subway afterwards and just talk, and maybe talk religion as well. We said..... sure! (but probably more enthusiastically !!) ) 

       So this week we taught about 5 people English. Just the basics ,how to say the menu items and greet people and all that jazz. Then we went for drinks and all just talked for a while.  They all asked us questions about why we are here and what we believe and we ended up teaching Pizza hut the first lesson!!! heheheheh I love missions! So anyways, we shall see how that continues as we continue to teach them English.  I wouldn't be surprised if we make a few amies outta this experience!
      We've also been continuing to see a lot of less actives.   We just found out that the reason none of these members have been seen, is that no one does home teaching to  them!!!!  We brought it up in the branch, and they seem to think that it is more important to see the members that are active.  Since it is so hard to see people when they live so far away. They don't have the force to teach anyone else!!!!  AHHHHHHHH!!!!!!  We even did a whole lesson on the parable  of the Shepard leaving his heard to rescue the lost sheep. We talked about how these lost sheep could represent the less actives and the need to help them out, but no one does anything about it!!!!! I would think, it would be MORE important to try and visit the members who have not come to church over the members who are more active.  Loads of them live very close and need help!  I know that if  SOMEONE , could just show their love for some of these members, loads of them would return.  We are working on it, and hopefully we can talk to the branch president and get something going. There are some really cool less actives!!!
       Well in other news. We are returning our efforts to finding again.  We've planned to go porting next to all of our members homes so we can find amies close to them. We hope to get them to teach with us and get less actives to teach with us as well. That could strengthen their testimony and desire to return!
   Well life is good and I am absolutely loving my mission! Work is tough.  We have tried all different types of ways to find people. Diligence plus patience is the best method of finding, so we'll just continue to work and love everyone to death and good things will come!

                                                Elder Lyons

I finnaly get to e-mail!

    First off, I am SOOO sorry you haven't been able to hear from me for a while. It is always busy during transfer week. Plus, the computer at the church died and we had to find somewhere else to do emails.  No worries, we've found a place!

    I haven't gotten any packages, but if you haven't gotten my letters yet it must  mean the post is being slow....like always.
      So the last few weeks have been kinda crazy!  Me and Elder Porter have really been trying to figure out how to help this branch. We've prayed and studied it out during our recent planning sessions.  We even brought it up in interviews with President. We have felt impressed to change gears a little bit. We have  started doing a lot more work with the less active and trying to  strengthen our branch's members. A lot of people have been offended by the leadership of this branch and many amies struggle, and have struggled ,with it as well. However, the leadership right now is stellar and we've felt it is time for people to start coming to church!!!!

     First miracle of the week.  A less active family that we've been seeing on and off since I have been here, the Goldings. They are an English family that has had MANY trials and difficulties. The wife, Natile, is the only member of the Church. She was married once before, and had two sons, Andrew and James. She is now married to Nil and has two adorable daughters ages 5 (Rebecca) and 13 (Nina).  They remind me a ton of Rachel and Natty!
     Every member of the family had grown SUPER ANTI church for ages. They didn't even allow missionaries to pray, let alone share messages with them. But, they always had a special bond with us, because the missionaries have helped them in their times of difficulty.  However, after 3 or so months they have really started to open up to us and share why they have had a hard time with God, the church, and life.  Let's just say that this family has been through alot! I cannot describe or even have the right to really share all of the things they've been through.  I know that God loves them very much because I have grown to see them the way God sees them! Natily and her 13 year daughter Nina have even been open enough to listen to short little lessons and they want to start coming to church! I love this family!

     Rebecca is killing me though, because she makes me miss Natty! She loves to play cache cache (hide and seek) with me and play with her little pet shop toys.  She told her mom that I was her favorite. She is literally attached to me, and won't let me leave when we have to go! God works in interesting ways.

     At first I didn't really know if spending too much time with this wonderful family was where we should be focused.  But I have felt like just loving and serving them has really been beneficial to them, and very surprisingly, opened up teaching opportunities for us!
     In other news ,we have been able to get a hold of Tia again. We really hit hard on the idea of what faith is. We have established that she believes in God and all of the lessons that she has been taught. We have had a hard time deciphering how interested she is in pursuing that belief and transitioning that belief into faith, because there is a HUGE difference between faith and belief.     For example, there is a difference between knowledge and wisdom. If someone is knowledgeable they can recite all the traffic laws in different countries and know that they should be kept for his own safety, but he isn't wise until the moment he applies those principles to himself and obeys those laws. So, belief is to faith. Faith is vivified living belief! Faith is action and obedience to the principles of the gospel. We explained all of this to Tia, and told her that if she is to really learn about Christ, (as she has expressed her desire to do so), then she needs to do simple acts of faith.  Things like, praying and reading the scriptures and coming to church every week (all things she has struggled with doing consistently). She understood very well, and expressed that at first she didn't really know the difference between faith and belief.  I think this will help out alot? We shall see!

     Well, I love you lot's and I am soo sorry that emails ...well basically sucked for awhile! I love and appreciate everything you do for me and can't wait to talk to you Sunday!!!!!! I have to go because I need to email Tao and see how he's doing.   JE VOUS AIME !!!!!     Elder Lyons

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