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