Last E-Mail, Weird

Bonjour!

Happy b-day mom! I hope everything goes well with all the vacations y'all will be doing and stuff.  Well can you believe that this is the last e-mail that I will be sending to you as a missionary? Me either. It kinda makes me sick. I have been kinda depressed as the time begins to shrink and shrink. Being sick last weekend didn't help much either.  NO, not pancreas stuff, but if I am completely honest I should not have left the hospital as early as I did. My enzyme levels were still at like 3,000 and it has been taking me a bit of time to REALLY recover.  I have been really tired.  I didn't sleep all of last week and I guess that made my immune system crash a bit. Small things, such as a cold, were really amplified.  I managed to finally catch a few z's Sunday and yesterday and I feel alright now.  I must admit that I have lost a ton of motivation this transfer as far as work goes.  I feel like it is my fault that everything has kinda gone down the toilet. YES, I know that I couldn't control anything, but.......still. Well that's enough!  I just really needed to vent!

     On the bright side, we did manage to fix a baptismal date for the beginning of July with a brand new amie from Nigeria. Anna has a lot of faith and just really wants to learn about Christ. She is a referral from an old investigator, and she is excited to learn more about the gospel. We have also been finding tons and tons of potentials contacting.  A good half of them were fake numbers, however we did manage to make a few new amis outta all of it. We will be seeing one of them today, his name is Romaric, and we will be trying to fix a date with him, as well as a few others.

    Well I'm keeping my head high and I have definitely grown closer to my Savior this transfer if nothing else. You know everything that President Finn blessed me with has come true so far. Not in ways I expected,  but lets just say I have learned a lot about humility these past few months (not that I can even say that I am humble) and without God we truly are nothing.

     Well, this is it. One more push!  I love all of you and I am so grateful for all of your support! I definitely did not serve this mission alone! Thank you tons! I will see you at Salt Lake at 2 next Thursday......à bientot!

LOVE ELDER LYONS

Last few weeks!

So... I will get the little thingies outta the way first, comme d'hab!

YEP, I got all of the B-day packages and I loved em all!  They are pretty much all eaten already.  I haven't had the return visit to the Dr. yet and I am not completely sure when it is... I just had a follow up blood test . I think they were making sure that my enzymes are down..... not completely sure about that because I can't read the doctors hand writing. I will give them a call soon if I don't hear anything.   Yes, I look forward to SF!!

    Well, I still had to take the first half of this week a little slow, but I got up to working a full day by Wednesday or Thursday. We also had a member of the seventy come and visit us in Paris and he pretty much tore it up! Elder Teixeria challenged us to have the faith to find new investigators everyday and to teach 21 lessons a week! That's a lot in case you were wondering.  Our stand was set at 16 a week and not everyone reaches that. HE was the mission pres. in the Sao Paulo south mission and apparently it wasn't always on fire like it is now. They used to be a lot like Europe but when he came in as president he felt inspired to boost the goals up and look at em now! He gave an incredible talk on faith and hard work and pretty much pumped me up for my last two weeks. I also had to give what we call a "dying testimony". This is where all of the missionaries that will be leaving at the end of the transfer give their final words, so to speak, and bear their testimonies......wasn't fun, but it was good.

This week was a little rough and we didn't have much going on, but we did have a cool church activity where the members were suppose to bring friends to teach and do a little tour of the church.  No one came but a few members so those members that came decided to go find people with us!!  IT was cool to do contacting with frère gaba and we ended up (all together) finding 4 or 5 people.  We got their addresses and numbers and fixed rdvs so it was successful in the end. Well... now comes the big push to really find and teach people before we hand Melun off to two brand new missionaries.  We will see what happens.

I LOVE YOU

elder lyons

Still Alive!

 So last week was not too exciting.  For the most part I was sleeping at the apartment recovering. The medication they gave me was super strong and knocked me out pretty good,  the only problem is that I kinda became nocturnal and slept during the day.  I am trying to break out of  that habit right now....not too easy. However, I got fed up of sitting around.  On Friday we called a few potential amies and even fixed a couple rdvs, and we  were able to make a new amie!  We found Makan while waiting for a train to come and he was super touched by our testimonies and how everything we do and believe is centered on Christ!! We taught him about the restoration and I invited him to be baptized, he responded enthusiastically saying," Oui je suis pret! "(yes i am ready!) Well, he has got a few more lessons before that can happen but we love his enthusiasm. The new missionaries should be getting a few baptisms right as they come in....pretty cool!

     So other than that,   I finally got to go to the Louvre on Monday!   LEGIT, but it maybe wasn't the best of ideas to run around as much as we did, because now I am dead tired.... Super fun though.

    Well I am super grateful for all your prayers, and appreciate the many things you've done for me, and look forward to seeing you soon

Elder Lyons

Jason's Health

Jason's Mom speaking again,
  Jason is recuperating from his last pancreatic attack.  Apparently the doctors pumped his stomach during his last attack.  This procedure caused him to go into shock.  Needless to say his body is having a harder time recovering.  He has spoken with his mission President and the two of them feel that it would be best for him to return home one transfer early.  It is not considered and early release because it falls within a month of his call date.  Jason has mixed feelings.  In his own words, " My head is telling me No! but my body is telling me, Yes!"  We have mixed feelings too.  Mostly for him.  I am excited to see my son in just a few weeks.  I feel that it will be better to have him home so we can help him in case he has another attack.  Hopefully we can find a good doctor to help us figure out, What next?
 Jason has served an awesome mission and done extremely well.  We are very proud of him.

Liberation!!! Again.

Oh boy,  I don't even know what to say!

     I just got outta the hospital and it is about 8 o'clock here in Melun.  I have never been so grateful to be outside!!!!!  So here is the update. The doctors got a hold of the doctors in Brest (the people doing my genetic test) and guess what .....it came back negative! Not much has changed, I am still a big mystery. The doctor here is pretty sweet and seems to think they can figure something out.....I appreciate the enthusiasm.. but I am not completely convinced yet.  I have an rdv with him in a couple of weeks to plan out what I wanna do.           Apparently, from what I understood, there is one more genetic test they could do that is even more complicated than the first.  The first one only searched for common anomalies and this other one searches for abnormal ones.....yeah I don't get it either.  After that, they want to do an MRI but I am pretty sure I have done one. They're in the middle of getting all of my paperwork from Limoges so if I did do one they will find out and that will change the plans.  The last option, according to them, is to send me to the French's greatest in Paris who apparently specialize in pancreatitus cases......I am not sure what I think yet. 

    This last visit to the hospital was pretty tough.  I have definitely grown really close to my Savior this week and I have really grown to appreciate His atonement! I couldn't make it if it wasn't for Him!! This last week end was one of the darkest moments of my life. For the first time I was just wanting to give up and go home! But I know in whom I have put my faith; and Jesus Christ gives us the power to overcome anything.

    Well, before this escapade we had a fairly good week! We have been spending most of our time contacting all day every day.   I understand what Chris is going through and he is right, it is fun! We have even found someone every time we have gone out finding which equals a lot of potentials.  Unfortunately we haven't been able to follow up on them yet because I have been in prison all week. OH! p.s.  I have a huge beard right (don't worry I will shave it) now.  It's pretty gross.  I will take pictures and send them to y'all next week!             UMMMMmmm... what were your other questions?  Oh yeah...no I unfortunately did not get much work done in this hospital but ....well I don't want to scare you, but the first night I went into shock because of a weird treatment they were doing.  They sent a big tube up my nose and down to my stomach to suck out all the acidity from it.......worst experience ever!  I had to keep it in there for 24 hours. After that I was in a lot of pain so I spent most of my time intoxicated with morphine and some other drug.  But everything is good!! I am doing well and I will be taking it a little slow these next couple of days to recover!  I have an awesome companion who is one transfer ahead of me and we have bonded a lot these past couple of days! If anything, I sure can't deny the power of Christ's atonement because I have never felt it as powerfully as I did this weekend.

    So don't worry.  My chin is up, and I won't be hasty about turning down tests, but if you could fast for me (beings i cant) I sure would appreciate it. I am gonna need all the help I can get these last weeks here

LOVE

ELDER LYONS

Tender Mercies

Jason is in the hospital in Melun today so you get to hear from his mother.  This is his second pancreatic attack while serving his mission.  It is always amazing to see how the Lord takes care of his missionaries.  His first attack happened in a city with a University hospital, which are supposed to be the best in France.  His second attack has happened in a city where his Aunt just happens to have a friend living.  I don't believe in coincidences.  It was great to have someone check up on him.  His mission president is awesome, but some of his translations of medical terms into English are not the best.  Funny, but confusing.
     Jason is doing fine.  We should have his blood tests back on the genetic testing in about a week.  The results  will determine if he is on medication for the rest of his life or not.  The doctors would like to do some more tests, but that will be up to Jason to decide.  I know he hates tests but I can't help but wonder if part of the reason he was called to France was because they could help him with this aspect of his life.  I asked him to pray about it before he told them, "No Way!"  We will see.  Hopefully next week we will have another report from Jason.

Sorry

      I am so sorry about how bad the emails have been getting.  This place really goes nuts when holidays happen.  I also totally forgot how soon mothers day was. CRAZY! Well here's our number 0688071100 I think it would be best if you just call when you are available and I will answer it!  Oh yeah, I am getting moved. I will be spending the rest of my mission in Melun. It is like 30 minutes from Paris so that should be cool, I have never really been anywhere near Paris!

     Well things were going really well here. We had a super legit rendezvous with William the Ghanaian amie!  We were teaching a lesson on the commandment to follow the prophets and I felt inspired to ask him what he felt about Joseph Smith. He basically testified to us that he knew that he was a prophet from reading the Book of Mormon and he has watched the video every morning and he knows that the BOM is the word of God! HE IS READY!! He should be getting baptised sometime next transfer. We also had a legit lesson with Damien's family. They have all been reading in the Book of Mormon.  Even the little ones, LEGIT! We watched a movie called Our Heavenly Fathers Plan, (super old), it's about the plan of salvation and they liked it. We then explained the first half of the plan of salvation. I shared the experience of when I came home from track the night mom got diagnosed with cancer and how I tried trick or treating our own house.  Not knowing about anything that mom had been going through and thinking I was being funny.  I had my heart broken with everyone yelling at me for disturbing our poor mother...not the best way to find out she had cancer....I was devastated.  I remember how powerful family prayer became then.  I shared how unified we became through Christs atonement and through doing simple things such as family prayers and scripture study!  IT WAS SO COOL to see the kids reaction! Normally they are rambunctious and hyper, like ....normal kids, but after I shared this experience ...everything got really quiet and the spirit was so STRONG!! I expressed how much love I had for my savior for bringing our family together and challenged them to hold family prayers and study! Damien's mom Danielle has already read a descent amount in the BOM and the Joseph Smith book. She has agreed to be baptised when she knows it is true!!! I hope she gets it soon but I know and feel like she is so close!!! Damien's a super example for her and she is super touched by his testimony and she is super grateful for us and helping him find this incredible testimony. Which is basically what pushed her into wanting to learn more. The family she has tried to share the gospel with who wasn't really listening is all of a sudden listening and not just with their ears, but with their hearts!!! I am gonna miss them SO much.  Even if I get to see them soon with y'all!

    Well other than that we had a few other great rdvs with Qiongji and Winnoc. Qiongji knows baptism is what she needs to do and even has a testimony of prayer now. BIG STEP. But she really needs a stronger testimony of Christ and this is our focus on helping her now. 

     Well I got to leave, but know that I love you so much and that I am working my hardest out here! I love my savior Jesus Christ and grow closer to Him every day! ..... I still don't have genetic results yet but the hospital is sending me all the results this week and then I have got to go back for a check up soon .....which means I will be doing a trip back to Limoges WOO!!

So here is my new address 10 Rue Brasserie Gruber

                                               Melun ( not sure what the serial code is)

LOVE YOU TONS

Moving all the time!

O.K. as Jason's mother and editor of his blog, I thought it would be fun to throw in one of his e-mails that has not been edited by me first.  As Jason's mission has progressed, his grammar has become more like the French and his spelling too.  This is what an e-mail looked like when it got to me:
 Dear Fam fam!

I am glad to hear everyone is doing so well and that you enjoyed the pisc! Thank you for the letters and i hope to get some more out soon. OK where to even start.....i dont know why but it is really hard to find service to do in this mission, thus whenever you get the chance it is taken as a treasure and a wonderful oppurtunity! I prayed alot to be able to notice little things i could do for people and just be able to give someone a hand every once and a while......well i think my prayers got answered at once these past two weeks and weve been going left and right from one service project to the next! My poor little cross country arms are exhausted! First off weve been helping Sophia (one of our amies) make several moves from her old appartment to a storge unit until she finnaly got the new appartement where we moved everything to this past saturday.....she is a single woman with more things than our family of 7!!!!! Why do women have so many things!!!! Anyways it was really cool though cause apparently she couldnt find anyone else but us and the member we brought to help her out and if we werent there she wouldnt have gotten her thnigs outta the old appartemnt fast enough....apparently ther is was a time limit to when she had to have it done or else they would just kicked her out....so that was cool! Then we helped a recent convert move some things as well as an amie that moved from the Lyon mission (TONS OF STUFF) and we also helped Damien clean out his attick and the garage woo!! I have diffinately been running faster than i am able but we had good things goin for us this week more particularly our amies.
 William is and amie from Ghana of whom we teach in english and we just fixed a baptismal date with him! He has made a ton of progress since i first taught him with Elder Fisher, at first he did not understand at all the apostacy or the need for authority but he has always been SUPER hungry to learn and understand and has reached the point where he understands it very well! He also has diminished smoking from 2 packs a day to two sticks a day! Woo wee! He will probaly get baptised next transfer meaning that it is highly likely that i wont see it but thats ok! OH and even better news we finnally had another wonderful rendezvous with Damiens family and we finnished teaching the complete first lesson! I was slightly scared to ask Damiens mom to be baptised because i knew that she was a jehovas witness and i didnt know how she was going to react and i didnt want to make any hard feelings especially with damien there, but i felt very strongly that i needed to do so and whata ya know the spirit is always more intelligent than us and she accepted the invitation with gratitude if i can say it! It was cool!! I probably wont see her be baptised either, but for some reason i am not as dissappointed as i was to missing past peoples baptisms.....i am just overwelmed with joy to have been able to teach Damien everything and even see his baptism reception of the preisthood see him distribute the sacrament and bless it and recieve a calling as ward missionary!! (and soon to baptise his own family members) I couldnt be more happy!! BTW his mom is super legit and super faithful! She came to church yesterday for the first time and liked it and everyone was super excited to se her so things are going well! The bishop (whom is pretty much my new grandpapy and whom i love TONS) even came up and told us personnally who proud of the work we were doin......it was kinda cool.
 Sweet well Elder Costner is doin really well and progressing a ton! He doesnt even realize it adn it reminded me of a time i had in Le Mans when i got super frustrated with myself like he similarly did this week and Elder Crump picked me up and brought me outta my self pity.....it was like Deja vu and i never felt a love so strongly for my companion than at this moment, where i felt the love that my Heavenly Father had for him and the oppotunity i ahd to pick him up and help encourage him. He truly is a stellar elder!
Well life is good and we got lots of stuff to do and i hope all continues to go well at the promised land! PS i cant wait to talk to yall next transfer on mommys day!!!
LOVE
ELDER LYONS

      AS  YOU CAN SEE, I HAD A LOT OF EDITING TO DO SOME WEEKS.  SOME WERE BETTER, BUT MOST WERE LIKE THIS ONE.  

        This is after it has been edited:

      Dear Fam fam!

    I am glad to hear that everyone is doing well and that you enjoyed the pictures I sent! Thank- you for the letters.  I hope to get some more out soon.

    OK, where to even start.....I don't know why but it is really hard to find service to do in this mission.  Whenever you get the chance it is looked at as a treasure and a wonderful opportunity! I have been praying a lot to be able to notice little things I could do for people.  Just be able to give someone a hand every once in awhile.  Well.. I think my prayers got answered all at once!  For the past two weeks we've been going left and right from one service project to the next! My poor little cross country arms are exhausted!

    First we've been helping Sophia (one of our amies) make several moves from her old apartment to a storage unit until she was able to get into her new apartment this past Saturday.  She is a single woman with more things than our family of 7!!!!! Why do women have so many things!!!!  Anyway it was really cool that we were able to help her because she couldn't find anyone else.  It was just us and the member we brought with us to help her out. If we hadn't been there she wouldn't have gotten her things out of her old apartment fast enough.  Apparently there was a time limit to when she had to have it done or they would have just kicked her out.   Then we helped a recent convert move some things; as well as an amie that recently moved here from the Lyon mission (TONS OF STUFF).  And... we also helped Damien clean out his attic and his garage, woo!! I have definitely been running faster than I am able, but we had good things going for us this week.  But more particularly good things are happening with our amies.
     William is an amie from Ghana (whom we teach in English) and we just fixed a baptismal date with him! He has made a ton of progress since I first taught him with Elder Fisher.  At first he did not understand (at all) the apostacy or the need for authority. He has always been SUPER hungry to learn and understand and has reached the point where he finally understands it very well! He has also gone from smoking 2 packs a day to two sticks a day! Woo wee! He will probaly get baptized next transfer, which means that it is highly likely that I won't be here to see it, but that's ok!

    Even better news.... we finally had another wonderful rendezvous with Damien's family.  We finished teaching the complete first lesson! I was a little scared to ask Damien's mom to be baptized.  I knew that she was a Jehovah's Witness and I didn't know how she was going to react.  I didn't want to make any hard feelings between her and Damien , but I felt very strongly that I needed to invite her to be baptized.  And  whata ya know, the spirit is always more intelligent than we are. She accepted the invitation with gratitude if I can say it! It was cool!! I probably won't see her be baptized either, but for some reason I am not as disappointed as I have been about missing past peoples baptisms.  I am just overwelmed with joy to have been able to teach Damien everything and to see his baptism, his reception of the preisthood,  to see him pass the sacrament and bless it, and to recieve a calling as ward missionary!! (Soon he will be able to baptize his own family members) I couldn't be more happy!!   BTW, his mom is super legit and super faithful! She came to church yesterday for the first time and liked it. Everyone was super excited to see her so things are going well! The bishop (who is pretty much my new grandpapy and whom I love TONS) even came up and told us personally how proud he is of the work we are doing......it was kinda cool.
      Elder Costner is doing really well and progressing a ton! He doesn't even realize it.  It reminded me of a time I had in Le Mans when I got super frustrated with myself (like  Elder Costner did this week) and Elder Crump picked me up and brought me outta my self pity.....It was like Deja vu.  I have  never felt a love so strongly for my companion than at this moment, when I felt the love that my Heavenly Father had for him, and had the opportunity to pick him up and encourage him. He truly is a stellar Elder!
    Well.. life is good and we have lots of stuff to do.  I hope all continues to go well in the promised land! PS I can't wait to talk to y'all next transfer on mommys day!!!
LOVE
ELDER LYONS

As you can see, I still miss a few things, but it is much better.  Don't you agree?

I love you all, I promise!

YES, YES, YES, it was a holiday last  week.  I am so sorry but there really wasn't anything I could do about it!!!  I still love you and yes mom, I am alive! he he. Well I don't even remember the last e-mail I sent but I guess I will never be stressed when I e-mail again...sorry to scare everyone like that....stress happens as a missionary though what can I say.  I am feeling a lot better.

    OK, so many questions I don't even know how to answer all of them.....ONE, the schedule is perfect. THANK YOU TONS, that is a lifesaver not to have to set that junk up.  I can't begin to tell you how grateful I am.  TWO,  I have no idea about who to room with, but after having 13 companions that I didn't choose I think I will survive one semester with someone I didn't plan on.  So the Glenwood sounds great. THREE,  places to visit .....oh boy let's start with Paris! The Louvre and the Palace of Versailles are musts and after that I am pretty much content, but would love to go other places. I have never served in Normandy and I would love to see the d-day beaches.  I have heard they are stunning.  I HAVE to go back to Namur and see some of the best people ever, and I think I am asking too much with all of that already.    I will tell ya if there is something else other than that.  I sent you a letter last week and I sent my SD card with loads of pictures so I sure hope it didn't get misplaced!!   Keep me posted on that one!!  I will send another in any case.

    Well I won't lie.  The work has kinda gone down the toilet these past couple of weeks. he he But don't worry we are doing well and are learning a lot from our difficulties!  At the same time we have been really blessed with a few new amies. We spent an entire week end moving a recent converts stuff out and later that same day an investigator from Bergerac (ville in the Lyon mission) moved to Limoges. She had two truck loads of stuff and she is a single mother of one daughter!!! ( PS french apartments are tiny and suck for moving big furniture).......plus cross country arms don't help out much. Mais on s'est débrouillé bien. This lady is so awesome though! Her name is Victoria and I don't know, we just got along right away and she has been going to church faithfully and progressing very well according to the elders there.  We are excited to help and serve her. Other than that, we found another amie on exchanges.  Elder Costner and Elder Barker were waiting at a bus stop and an African man from the Congo started asking them questions.  Since then we have taught him about the restoration of the church of Christ through Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon and he is probably the most excited to learn about the gospel than anyone I have ever met.....except maybe Rémy from Valencienne.  But it is a close second....which is the ironic thing! He just lived in Valencienne like me! He even left at the same time! Weird....anyways all of our other amies have either been dropped or aren't progressing to well.

     Qiongji's date is changed for the 5th of May and she has been having some successful prayers but she still has not made the effort to keep all of the commandments and is not ready to make the necessary changes in her life to experiment upon the words of Christ!!!  She is so close and yet so far away.  We are going to be watching Joseph Smith the prophet of the restoration together at a members house soon and we will be having a kinda make it or break it rdv!!

    Cool well that is the 411 I hope all is going well and I wish I could be there to hear Meagan sing!!!!!!! I wanna see her finale badly but I guess you'll have to show me laters! Well keep up the awesome work and I am glad everyone had good weeks your awesome and I loves y'all lots!    

Stressed Out!

 OK this e-mail is going to be really boring because I am trying to get a lot of regulatory things out of the way! So, the other elders scared me when they told me that registration was due today and I had no idea you had already sent the confirmation that I will be coming back and stuff.  I still need to pick classes and that is the last thing I wanna do right now. I have lot's of things stressing me out right now!!!!!!!   I tried to do some things already but I couldn't figure out how to do it!! It's been to long.  I also think that I can't register for some of the classes I want because I have that I am a pre-animation major. If you could, (today was supposed to be the first day I could register and I know as soon as the freshman register, nothin will be left!!!) would you register me for some basic art classes so I can figure out what I would like to do more specifically. I also know I need to do figure drawing classes. If you could pick some of those for me and maybe a D&C class and something else like a generals requirement that would be good. For now I was thinking about going into illustration! If that's too vague I am sorry.  I should of thought of this sooner. As far as who and where I would like to live, I can think of a lot of people but I will need to talk to them first.  Kinda hard to do. Elder Nelson, maybe Nils but I really have no idea!!!!

     This week has been crazy and today we spent all of our p-day helping an investigator move!! It took 8 hours and I am dead! I didn't sleep last night because we only have three pillows and beings we had the Poitier's Elders over to see conference, I sacrificed my pillow for them!

    Qiongji is still doing well but there is still lots of work to do.  I am stressing out a bit if you haven't noticed yet. I have never wanted something good to happen for someone as bad as now! But I know the Lord will do what he needs to when and how it needs to be done.  A lot of that is up to Qiongji as well!  We are kinda in the middle of reconstructing Limoges. A lot of amies and potentials just got dropped. However some amies are just starting to make a ton of progress so it is to much of an emotional experience to describe how I really feel.  I have had some of the best and worst experiences of my life here in Limoges, it is really strange! But I am growing a lot.  I love you more and more the longer I serve the lord and I hope you are all doing well!

Love Elder Lyons

Up and Down

I unfortunately don't have to much time today but I won't wast time explaining! I just sent letters to grandma and one to home with pictures of Damien's baptism and stuff.
  First off!!  Thanks so much for the wonderful packages. I got the one from grandma and from mom!!! I must say the PB is the best!!!!

OK the biggest news is that we fixed a baptismal date with Qiongji!!! She is the Chinese amie we have been teaching since I got here, and she has been taught for almost a year now!! We had been really struggling to find out what we should teach her because we have taught her ...well I have taught her (with Elder Fisher and Costner) all of the lessons almost three times!!!!! BUT.. after a ton of reflection and spiritual planning me and Elder Costner felt super strongly prompted to invite her to baptism!! The one problem that she has been struggling with has been to find that conviction that everything is true, her testimony! She believes all of it is good but just hasn't been able to have good prayers. She feels like she is talking to herself. We talked a lot about how she could improve them, and we spent a lot of our time using the example of the brother of Jared. We told her that sometimes the Lord asks us to come up with some ideas to how we should resolve our problems and then to present them to him for his approval. This is what the brother of Jared did. The Lord does this because he wants us to work and he wants to make us better and increase our faith! This is how we presented the baptismal invitation to her;in saying that she needed to present her desire to be baptized and her sincerity and real intent to be baptized by fixing a goal and presenting it to the lord in prayer to help her prepare for this date!! It was a super powerful rendezvous and she accepted to prepare herself to be baptized the  14th of April which is cool because after I gave the invitation she said," WOW, that is cool that is the day I was thinking of!!

We also are having lots of success with Damien's family. His cousin Mandy in particular. She already agreed to be baptized after she gets her answer.....YEAH miracles! I guess I should go to the hospital more often eh!!! JK, and no I haven't gotten the results yet!!!! I will keep you posted!! Well transfers are over and I am still a district leader.....which means half of my time in the field I have spent being a district leader....weird well I love you lots and I hope y'all have a good week!!

LOVE Elder Lyons

Another Crazy Week!

Oh boy, where to start?  Sometimes I just don't know what to say about the crazy things that go down in France! First, no the food in the french hospital is still terrible....pretty much as bad as at Portneuf believe it or not....(which by the way, means new bridge in french).....I think the best hospital as far as care and food has to go to Seattle! However the nurses are very pretty here he he! Oh I am terrible.....but its true.   Anyways, the results of my tests should be coming by the end of this week or beginning of the next week. I have a few follow ups with the hospital in April and one with the mission doc this week at Poitier's.....I'll keep ya posted.
   OK time for the work!! Lets start with Damien's family. I had been working and praying and fasting (but not anymore don't worry!) SUPER hard and long to teach all of Damien's family at once, but I never could get em all to join....until NOW!! Last Thursday me and Elder Bequette (on exchanges) finally succeeded in teaching them! It was incredible! Danielle, Damien's mom, is legit and super believing! We taught a short lesson explaining why we are here as missionaries and explained Joseph Smiths story and the Book of Mormon!! The icing on the cake was Damiens testimony, which basically lit it up with spiritual fire!! I am so proud of this young man. He has strengthened my testimony SO much! He reminds me why I am here and that the work we do really is: 1, worth it and 2, effective!!  Mandy, Damiens cousin is the most progressive at the moment and has even started to go to church with Damien and his little sister! SO GOOD!
  We have also had some really good lessons with Armelle and she really wants to be baptized but she likes to take her time and is afraid that she might not get her answer......She needs to take a leap of faith but she continues to come faithfully to church every week not missing a beat!!! Quiongji has been taught it ALL!!!!! She has tried really hard to get answers to her prayers but has not been able to either recognize them or get to the point in her prayer where she feels like she is not just talking to herself!!!!! We boldly tried to fix a baptismal date with her and will continue to try this week.  She just needs to make the jump as well because she knows that it is the right decision but she needs to show her faith in fixing a goal to show God that she merits an answer!! It's hard!!
 Well things are going well and my comp is doing well. I'm trying to get him as involved as I can but I must admit that it is really HARD to sometimes!! He is getting a lot better at the French thing though and has even jumped into lessons a lot more, so things are going well!!
Well I love you and pray for y'all and I hope that this week is fabulous!!!
Love Elder Lyons

Liberation!!!!!!

I am FREE!!  OK I guess I've got some explaining to do. First off, YES I am outta the hospital. They did the genetic test and sent my blood up to Brest and they will work their magic and send the results in a couple of weeks. The doctors here still wanna "explore" (if I translate their french directly )  the cause of my problems. Apparently there is another test I have not done.....who knew? It is some type of endoscopy but a lot less risky than the one I did in Seattle and it is supposedly "special" because they do some type of weird thing with an ultrasound at the same time????  I don't get it either but I don't wanna do any more exploring.... at least not in France...or Belgium. I am planning on just going to the follow up rendezvous to see what they think of all the results of things, get their opinion and I think that I will be fine until I get home and I can decide on some things there. 

     I don't believe fasting has anything to do with my problems....but don't worry president pretty much forbidden me from doing it so I wont, but let it be known that every single pancreatic attack I have had now, has been completely random and different than the others. Some happened during running, some didn't, some happened as I was eating pretty much perfectly during track training. Some happened after I had had a less than healthy meal, some happened not long after fasting, and some happened after I gorged myself ...........my opinion, NO ONE KNOWS. This of course is the problem which frustrates doctors because they like to know what category you fit in but.......I am not frustrated, I feel great now!  He he he oh boy what a joke eh? 

         Oh well, I was able to teach a bit about the church with a few nurses and when Damien came and visited me, he brought his cousin, Mandy, who just moved into Limoges. I taught her the first lesson at the hospital and she came to church this Sunday and we will be teaching her with Damien on Thursday!!! So not bad for being gone all week!     Let's see what other questions did you ask? Yes, a lot of members visited me! It was sweet! The bishop, Frere Jacas, is an angel he and I get along very well. We cracked jokes about how ridiculous everything was and it made time go by faster. I also had a few other members visit me, and the missionaries in Poitier's, and my comp came once too, so I was well watched over! ummmmm yeah I am almost back to normal.  I am just catching up on sleep, but from today onward I should be working like normal! Thanks for all of your prayers and I sent loads of letters because I was stuck doing ........a lot of waiting in the hospital so ....your welcome!!!

Love from France and Elder Lyons

March 5th

    We did not receive a e-mail from Jason today.  We were called by his mission President the following day to let us know that Jason was in the hospital.  He had had a pancreatitis attack.  We had known that this was possible when he left for his mission.  With just 5 months left we were hoping he would make it all the way.  Not to be.  Cyndie Lyons

Rockin Baptism!

YO!

    This was an incredibly, wonderfully, difficult week! All of our amies, pretty much all of them, were sick so the average of 10 or so planned rendezvous turned into two or three.....which means LOADS of porting and contacting.  This has become slightly harder recently because I am the only one speaking most of the time. However, I must say I am very proud of my companion because he is getting better and better every day! I can get him to start conversations at the door and he is starting to get used to it, but I still haven't gotten him to contact someone yet. He'll get it soon though! Another thing he has done that I was SUPER proud of, was  during a lesson with Damien we were teaching about the priesthood to kinda prepare him to be ordained a priest soon, and I asked Elder Costner to explain the organization of the Aaronic priesthood.  Not an easy question to answer in English.  He struggled with a few words and paused here and there, but it was great! I love seeing him progress its cool! One cool/not cool at first experience we had contacting this week happened after we had been contacting for an hour already and nobody would even talk to us, but we had to go to a rendezvous so we headed out to take the bus.....when we got there he must have forgotten and suddenly are day became pretty open .....again. We went to go take the next bus back to the downtown area, but I felt like we should keep walking instead.....so we did. We stopped everyone that we passed and the second lady, Annie, let us talk to her!!! I taught her about the ministry of Christ, the great apostasy, and the wonderful restoration of His church by the prophet Joseph Smith. I told her about the blessings that came from the restoration, notably the Book of Mormon. She took a copy and we exchanged numbers and bam! new potential amie! Yeah spirit! We also have found two people porting and we have a full list of potentials that we need to contact!! I have found that finding potentials isn't the hard part.  It's turning potentials into investigators!! But we're weeding through the list and hopefully we can pick some new people up as well!

     OK,  now the baptism!!! Damien was just beaming!! You could tell that he was feeling the spirit big time! His brother and sister's were there and we had three other amies there as well. Armelle in particular was super touched by the baptism!! Today we are going running again with Damien and we are going to teach his family as well!! Right now he is playing the role of brother and father because their father decided to walk out on them when Damien was only three.  He is left to take care of everyone when mom is not home. I hope his mom will be there today but we shall see!

    Ummmm, things are going well, I am a bit tired but that is normal as a missionary and I love my mission and hope I can keep the fire going!!

Love all of you and I pray for y'all all the time!

Elder Lyons

Wow!

    This week was surreal and unfortunately I have been running back and forth from Paris and doing my best to keep up with everything.  Unfortunately I do not have much time to write today!

    FIRST OFF!!! Big news!  Damien has gotten his answer and he is ready for the baptism!!!! He is super excited and everyone is pumped here!! He will be baptized this coming Saturday and I will be either confirming him or baptising him.... I can't remember which.   What a great experience for my new comp!!! BTW His name is Elder Costner and he is from New Mexico and he is super cool! We are doing great and I am trying to figure out how to teach him a language that I don't even know too well, he he he! No it's great and OOH other great news, Damien has already started sharing the gospel with his family and now his sister wants to be baptized too!!!! I am too excited to really explain with an e-mail!
     Well our amies our progressing very well and Armelle is getting SO close to baptism. She's just struggling a little with trying to forgive herself and to not take things out on herself....sounds familiar. God is funny. I was able to relate with her very well and share some really touching experiences I had in Dunkirk. I was able to tell her how true charity for others starts with loving ourselves and having a testimony that we are truly Gods children and that he loves us SOO much!!   She is doing much better!!
We even found a new guy porting for the first time on Elder Costner's part, and are starting to pick up a few I already found with Elder Fisher!! Things are great and I loves you tons and I am sorry this is so stinking short.
LOVES and KISSES
Love Elder Lyons

Training and Staying in Limoges

 So... yes it is a new transfer, and of course I will be staying and getting a brand new comp......really new actually! I will be training and I will also still be trying to manage the whole district leader thing. Yep, crazy! President must be really lost right now he he! Well, in any case I will be dropping off my dead comp in Paris and we will be getting up at 5 in the morning to catch the train on time so that we can both get to the mission home to pick up mon bleu.

    I got mommas package and I loved the heart scriptures, legit!!!!    I can't believe that Chris is gonna be freezing his booty off at the big red leaf in two days!!EXCITING

    Well this week was pretty exciting we found lots of new people from contacting and  porting.   Unfortunately, one of them just wants to be our friend, and another one just wants to bible bash with us.  Even though all we did was testify (without using scriptures to "prove" she was wrong).  Even though she felt the spirit she painted incredibly flawed arguments to try and tell us that we were lost and being lead away from Christ because we supposedly like the BOM more than the Bible.......bad rendezvous. HOWEVER, it was interesting because we brought Damien with us, and it was actually a good experience for him. He saw what it was like to see someone who tried to contend with the scriptures and teach by their own knowledge rather than teaching by the spirit and recognizing that missionary work is Gods work. He even told us afterward that she had gone way beyond the mark with the bible, and whether it's the Bible, Book of Mormon,  missionaries, priests, or whatever, none of them matter if we don't have a personal relationship with our Heavenly Father and pray to know what is true! GO DAMIEN!! That was a good day!  He was our mini missionary for the day and followed us to almost all the rendezvous.

  Another super cool thing happened as we organized a church activity for all of the amies. We made crepes and watched a church film on Wilford Woodruff's conversion.  We talked and shared comments afterwards. We had three amies there, and the coolest thing happened as we just kinda went around and presented ourselves to each other. The amies started by explaining how they met us and basically testified about how we had helped them.  One of of them in particular expressed how she hoped that she could be a member someday. Her name is Armelle. At the beginning of our rendezvous she was a little sad and really searching for God in her life. Now she even looks different! She's super happy, she loves going to church and loves talking with the members between and after the meetings!! SUPER awesome!! She is getting close to baptism, as well as a few others that we taught with the bishop last week! I am absolutely loving it out here and I am absolutely freezing my butt of as well!!  I have to go now, but I love all of you and I hope those of you that are sick get better. I am praying for y'alls!! GROS BISOUS!!!

 

Love Elder Lyons

Another Great Week!

Bonjour ma chere famille!!

 

     First off, yep! I got the wonderful package from grandma, it was delicious! Thanks much for the sweet note and goodies!! Second off, I don't think its the orange juice that made you consto Chris .....(it just wasn't powerful enough to blow through the junk you eat at the MTC he he. )!! 

    I just sent out a letter to ya mom and one should be coming to g-ma soon as well. I must say one thing, I really do try to keep up with the letters but Elder Fisher doesn't give me much of a chance to breathe on P-day and I never have time to write.  I am not supposed to write on other days, but I figure I want Elder Fisher to be able to see as much of the ville as possible before he leaves next week because I would wanna do the same ...so hopefully I will be able to balance things a little better next transfer.

     This week was super great and I traveled everywhere again, like Paris!! We had a big conference with all of the district and zone leaders there! Almost everyone in my MTC district was there.  It was SOOo cool to see them and how they've progressed!! We talked a lot about the goals for this new year.  Something super cool the Pres. did was to ask all the missionaries to help their wards and branches fix a goal for the amount of baptisms they felt like they could get this year, and then plan how to achieve that goal. Then, we gathered all of these goals and the combined total of baptisms became the new mission goal. This makes it so that the goal that we have fixed is really France's goal and everyone is involved and responsible for it. Rather than fixing a goal with simply the missionaries faith and their leaders, we have taken the faith of all the members and thus we are united in one purpose! This is what the president explained to us and let's just say the goal ain't small. It has doubled, maybe even more than that, and we as a mission are striving to bring 675 new converts to the church!! Already we are seeing big changes in the mission as members are getting more excited about the missionary work. The amount of new amies we are finding has nearly doubled since last year as well as lessons taught each week!! "We have a great work to do and we cannot come down." This is our theme from Nehemiah, when he built the walls anew around Jerusalem, and many things tried to distract him and prevent him from diligently working.  But he was persistent and never gave up. So too must we place our faith in the Lord and never give up because we too have a great work and we cannot afford to go down! We also talked a lot about the importance of prayer, obedience and many other things I hope to share with you in my next letters.

     This week we taught Damien , (well me and Elder Pieper, due to exchanges), more in depth about Joseph Smith. We related his story to Damien, to help him see how he can find and strengthen his testimony of the gospel of Christ, and the restoration. We explained how Joseph was an ordinary boy looking for truth and how he had enough faith to ask God, in mighty prayer, where to find the truth. His church wasn't immediately restored to the earth and Joseph wasn't even immediately called as a prophet. He had to endure many trials and persecution, due to his vision, and he had to overcome temptations and even repent, I imagine. BUT HE DID PERSEVERE! And, he did prepare himself and become closer and closer to God through prayer and studying the scriptures.  This is why Moroni came to him one night to reveal to him the location of the Book of Mormon. He even had to prepare himself more and diligently keep the commandments to be ready to translate the record. Over time and during the translation process of the Book of Mormon, Joseph and his colleague pondered over several chapters in the Book of Mormon about baptism and how it was to be done. So they asked God! John the baptist was sent to them and conferred upon them the priesthood power to baptize and later they received the higher priesthood necessary for other saving ordinances. They were baptised and prepared to organize the Church of Christ once again on earth and it will never again be taken away! What a blessing to have this knowledge!  And boy did Damien love it! He is going to be more than ready for his baptism the 28th of this month!! He was really touched by our testimonies of how we came to know of the truthfulness of this history and we are so proud of him.

     Armelle is also progressing very well and she even came to church during the craziest snow storm yesterday!! We have been really trying to help her understand how to receive answers to her questions and we taught her a lot about prayer and scriptures last week. She told us that she has been making a big effort to pray and is starting to feel peace. Even during rough times she's been able to better cope with stress and difficulties!! She's starting to recognize the spirit and after explaining the first four principles of the gospel to her and showing her how she's been in the process of doing the first two, faith and repentance, we challenged her to be baptized. She's not ready yet, but she says she really wants to get to that point, and she is continuing to progress.

Lyons

Tired, but not from lack of sleep!

Dearest fam fam!!

    This week was absolutely wonderful and so tiring!! I love y'all so much and I hope that you know how grateful I am for the sacrifice that you have all made so that I could go on a mission! I truly am having the best two years of my life out here. I have learned some of the most precious truths that I will hold very dear to my heart forever!! Thank you Grandpa Johnson and Grandma for all of the financial support and spiritual support you have given and continue to give me!! Thank you mom and dad. There truly aren't any words I could type or write on paper that would do justice to how much my heart is grateful for you and how much I love and appreciate you!! I know there were probably times when a lot of us thought that I wasn't going to be able to go on a mission. Whether it was my health, physically, or even for a time I wasn't prepared spiritually. Thanks to the wonderful examples of my family I was able to gain a testimony of the atoning sacrifice of our dear Savior! Thanks to wonderful friends such as Tallen, Joe, and Nils I was strengthened even more! Contrary to what doctors told me I never once doubted that I would be able to serve a full time mission. I had to! After how much the Savior blessed me in teaching me of His sacrifice, I knew I had to tell my brothers and sisters about it, it was my duty. Some told me that IF I served a full time mission there might be handicaps for me or that, at least, I would not be able to serve to far from home. That never felt right to me and I felt deep down that something special was planned for my mission. My mission call was like opening a door to a familiar room that I had nearly forgotten, and I am just barely starting to realize how perfectly God has planned my mission. There have been very specific trials that I have overcome in my life and EVERY single person that I have been privileged to teach has struggled with one or two of them. There was a moment in which I didn't know that the atonement was real. I felt much like Alma the younger harrowed up in my sins and I didn't see a way out. But I called on Jesus in every bit of strength I had late one night, on what was very much a wrestle for forgiveness of my sins. I have only had but few prayers that were answered as immediately and powerfully as that night, and I bear solemn witness that Christ's atonement is real. God lives and He is perfectly just and perfectly merciful. 

     This week I was able to share my testimony (as well as last week) more intimately with my amies and help them grow to understand our saviors love. One special moment that I will never forget was with Damien. He is from the Martin Islands and is studying here in Limoge. He is diligently reading in the Book of Mormon searching for his answers. Beings his baptism was planned for this week we went over the baptismal questions to make sure he was ready. I knew deep down that there was something bothering him a bit, but I also knew that whatever happened he would overcome it if we listened to him. After reading the questions he said he would like to learn more about repentance and Joseph Smith before he was baptized. At first I was a little curious as to why these two subjects were the two subjects he wanted answers to. I thought he knew repentance really well being raised in a christian home, but apparently there was something on his mind that was bothering him. I won't tell you what it was because I don't want to share peoples mistakes with others, but let me just say that he had the faith and courage to tell us that he struggled with one of the commandments that we had taught and he asked us if he could be forgiven.....I looked at him with a big smile and almost tears in my eyes and said....oui!!! c'est ça le grand plan de Dieu de pouvoir repentir et devenir le plus en plus comme lui! or YES this is the great plan of God, to be able to repent and become like Him!

    He is a strong example to me of faith and I am learning a lot from him. We have moved his date to the end of February but he has made a ton of progress and I know he will definitely be ready by this date.

    There are loads of other things I would like to share with you and I hope to find the time to write them in letters. I pray that you will all keep our Lord and Savior Jesus close to your hearts this week and I will keep you posted!
Love Elder Lyons

New Amie's!

OK first I will get the little things outta the way. NO, I don't need new or more contacts because I have been wearing my glasses pretty much my whole mission. I have more than plenty, even if I were to use only my contacts for the rest of my mission I would still have leftovers. However, I am pretty sure that my glasses are from the old prescription and I just want new ones, so I think that will be my Christmas gift to myself....but I see perfectly with the contacts!  Yes, I got the new drivers license like months ago.....sorry that I didn't send an update!

 

     I can't believe that Chris is gonna be leaving in a couple of days!!!!! THAT'S so crazy! 

     Well, last week was another marathon week and I am WASTED!!! We pretty much never eat dinner because all of the rendezvous that we have seem to fall at that time.  Even when planned rendezvous fall through we seem to pick up plenty of unplanned ones on the way!

    Damien is still progressing really well and he even walked an hour and a half to come to church yesterday!!! He is super sweet, and hopefully we will be having his baptism the fourth of February. We just finished up with all of the lessons and will be reviewing everything to make sure that he understands and there isn't anything missing.

    We met two awesome men from Nigeria this week! We were passing by and old amie that we had fixed a rendezvous with and he stood us up.  When we called him to see what was up he said he was running late and would not make it but that we should teach his friend who would be at his place....OK why not!  SO, we knocked his door and sure enough, Ike (like mike without the m), answers and was more than happy to learn about the Church of Jesus Christ. It was weird because he is new to France which means that he hasn't learned to really speak French but, he speaks perfect English. It was more difficult to teach him in English than when we have taught others in French!!! Just not used to it I guess.  It went really well! He loved the message and now we are teaching both him and Victor ,(the old investigator), and they are super pumped to read the BOM and to learn more. The last rendezvous Victor gave a sweet prayer and asked God to help them to know that our message was true after diligently studying and applying the principles of the BOM!!! It is amazing how many wonderful miracles I have found by updating and using the area book like we should! A lot of missionaries think it is a waste of time or that it takes to much effort, but it is a sacred record, or it should be a sacred record, of how certain people have progressed or been dropped ,where they live, and what past missionaries thought they needed to work on.  Even Elder Ballard emphasized the importance of missionary work in this domain when he said,"if the Savior came to you and asked you to give a report of the piece of His garden he has entrusted you with, and he asked to see your area book to see what you've done, would you be comfortable with what HE saw?" A lot of the baptisms I have seen have been through area book work, in one way or the other. Whether it was through the actual old investigators, or asking for referrals from them ,or porting in their area. There is a lot of potential there!

     We also had a few rough porting sessions this past week, but we testified our little faces off trying to show how much God loved these people.  Most everyone I have talked to lately has been atheist and you can only imagine how hard it was to try and find something to relate to, and even when we did find something they wouldn't let their hurt feelings, pride, or hate, move for long enough to let the spirit testify to them that God loved them.  I KNOW that a lot of them felt something, because we had some intense contacts about the atonement with some of them.  It broke my heart when they chose to disregard their feelings despite how strong they were! I can only imagine how much God feels for these people and how much patience He has as well.

     I have really grown close to my Savior this week. We taught the plan of salvation a lot, and I have grown an increasingly stronger testimony of the reality of our Savior's atonement.  How precious this gift He gave us to repent really is!!  I love being a missionary and I hope you are all loving life as well. Know that despite whatever difficulty we have, there is absolutely NOTHING that our dear Savior didn't overcome for us. GO TO HIM!! He will guide you over the gulf of misery and through the valley of sorrows! He knows what it's like for us ,better than we do, and no one gets back to our Heavenly Father without taking at least one step towards Gethsemane! 

    I love you guys, and I love my big brother Jesus!! Keep on chugging and I will send another letter with some pics tomorrow!

Love Elder Lyons

Crazy Week!

Where to even start!?  I guess I will try and answer a few questions. My companion is from somewhere around Sandy Utah.....No I haven't had time to buy a Christmas gift yet. We haven't really had time to do anything but work our buns off, which is good!! I think the only thing I will be buying anyways will be a new pair of glasses because mine are still on my old prescription and I think I would like some nicer ones. Other than that I will save the rest for school or something!

       OK, now the good stuff!!!  First off I finally sent those letters, sorry it took so long! Secondly, the first district meeting was awesome! We met at the Poitiers Elders apartment because we all live forever away from each other.  The churches in each of our separate villes are far away from the train stations so we just meet up at Poitier's apartment.   I used 1 NE 16 where Nephi brakes his bow and takes the initiative to make a new one as an example.  When we go out "hunting", (or searching for new investigators), and we don't find anything, and our "bows" break (or our ideas for finding don't work), we need to take courage, resist murmuring, and also have the faith to take the initiative and make a new bow or idea to find people.  Like Nephi we need to ask our Father in Heaven,"Where should I go to search for investigators....(instead of food)."  We have also been given our own liahonas, the preach my gospel and our scriptures to help us receive revelation as to how, when, and where, we are to help people come closer to Christ. It works according to the faith and diligence and heed we give unto these tools.   After the formation we practiced contacting and I think it went really well!

        Later I went on exchanges with Elder Whitecar in La Rochelle (SUPER PRETTY TOWN) and boy did we have a good time. We didn't get back until 4pm so we only had about an hour until dinner but we used as much time as we could contacting and literally EVERYONE stopped and talked to us! It was INCREDIBLE! We even got a number from someone who said we could see him later. Then the best part is: that after dinner we went to an apartment complex and started knockin' all the doors, and again EVERYONE would at least talk to us!!  AND, outta the 10 or so people we knocked into, TWO of them fixed rendezvous with us.  One of the young women, named Laura, talked to us for about 20 minutes. We basically taught her the first lesson!! She was super sweet and had LOADs of good questions!! AND now she is a new amie that La Rochelle is teaching. Apparently their first rendezvous went REALLY well and they gave her a tour of the church and had a great time!! In any case, SUPER awesome exchanges!!

       Later in the week  you won't ever guess what happened!  We had an interview with a journalist for one of Frances biggest radio broadcasting groups, France Bleu. Apparently Mitt Romney served part of his mission in Limoges so they wanted to know what a normal day for missionaries was like. SO, me and Elder Fisher had some training by a church media leader to help prepare us, and then last Thursday the journalist interviewed us. It was kinda cool, we got to share why we were here and what we do a bit.  I hope that people will better understand who we are while listening to this.  The journalist herself said she changed her mind a lot about us and realized that we aren't a bunch of freaks like they seem think.  Anyways, it went on air this morning and the bishop said it went really well.   It should be online as well so you might be able to find it if you would like.

      ANYWAYS,  back to real missionary work!! We taught a ton of rendezvous this week and hardly had time to eat lunches.....not a good idea by the way. We had a really good rendezvous with Damien who will be getting baptized on the fourth of February. SWEET! We taught him how there are two things separating us from God. Spiritual and Physical death. Christ already ransomed ALL of us from physical death, it is a free gift from His atoning sacrifice, and He also made it possible to overcome Spiritual death (or our sins), by the same sacrifice.  This requires 5 things on our part. We need to have Faith, Repent, be Baptized receive the Holy Ghost, and Endure to the end. It went really well.

      We taught this same lesson to a man named William ,from Ghana, and invited him to be baptized! He is ready and is all down for it!!  The only let down is that he is going back to Ghana and wont be back til February. The good news is, that there is a church super close to his families house in Ghana and he will be going to it with his cousin who is a member already! PERFECT!

       We also made new amie this week that we taught at the church, and many other good things are going down but I unfortunately am going to have to let you read about them in the letters because I need to write the Pres. now.  I loves all of you and I enjoyed hearing from so many of you at the farewell!!! You're all great and I loves y'all tons!

LOVE ELDER LYONS

Limoges

Well, I guess I got a lot of explaining to do beings I didn't get the time to write on last Monday.  This was due to all of the traveling, new transfers, and other stuff.  I just sent a lot of pictures by e-mail to ya, so hopefully you got them.   I have lots more coming ,but yes I am waiting on you to send the other SD card. This way I can continue to take more here!

     First off ...no I haven't been sick, so that has been absolutely wonderful!  A little tired after 9 hours of travel on three separate trains mais ça va.  MY new companion is not really new, in fact he will be going home at the end of this transfer, or as we say in the mission, I will be killing my comp! He he missionary lingo ! I am also the new district leader for Limoges, La Rochelle, and Poitiers.  I thought Pres. learned from his mistakes but I guessed wrong.  He he just kidding it'll be awesome! My new companions name is Elder Fisher and he is really inspiring for me. A lot of old missionaries either work harder or get really lazy their last transfer, and he is on fire!! He is really good at talking to as many people as he can throughout the entire day and finding ways to serve them.  He loves to talk to people on the buses and other forms of public transportation.....something I could definitely work on!!

    We have lots of work to do.  They recently fixed a baptismal date with a young man named Damian from the Caribbean Islands. He is super cool!  It was a pleasure to meet him and see his example of faith and his desire to learn and find the truth! We are also teaching a super awesome Asian lady ,who reminds me A TON of Tia from Dunkerque.  Her situation is pretty similar and I thoroughly enjoyed teaching her about Christ and how to obtain faith in Him and His atonement. I shared experiences with her on how I had gained a testimony of Christ and it was cool to see the light in her eyes as she intently listened to what we said. We also had a really cool lesson by our DMP (mission leader) at church on the plan of salvation with her and I really hope that her faith will be strengthened and that we can help her gain a testimony! She's legit....oh by the way her name is Quionji.....pronounced kee-on-shee!  There are also a lot of other potentials that we are working with and we've already hit the pavement with some really cool contacting experiences.

    I  had a really cool district leader training ,in Tours, by our Zone Leaders (LONG TRIP....for a train) and I am super excited to do my best to serve the other missionaries!!

    Well, a lot of settling in things are finally done. I love the ward, the town is big and beautiful!!!!!! The South is way different than the North and they speak REAL French.  I finally realized how different the northern accent is! Well I don't have enough time to write everything in detail but I will finally have time to send a letter this week.....well actually it is already written.  I was planning on sending a package as well but it was too expensive so I will just send the letter!!

Valenciennes District

Jason and Elder Horton

Jason, Remy, and Elder Horton at Remi's Baptism

Jason with Christmas Tree

A Bison Grazing in front of McDonald's! Say What?!

Elder Horton with damage to car after he ran into a pole. Probably after he saw the Bison.

    I love you! MY heart goes out to my lovely grandma!! I am so so sorry that you are experiencing the nastiness of pancreatitis!! I love you, and you are in my prayers.  I will also send your letter in the mail too!!  I love you Chris and I am so pumped for your mission.  I am praying for you as well.  I haven't forgotten the rest of ya as well.  Well, je vous aime tous!!!

Elder Lyons 

Going South!!! Say What?!

YO!

         I got some strange news. I'm going down south!! I have been transfered to Limoge, which is as south as our mission goes.  This means I can literally say that I have served as far north as I could and now as far south.  My new address is:

 

74 Rue Ernest Ruben

87000 Limoges

France

 

         I still don't know what to think about it because I absolutely loved it here!!  All the members, Elder Horton, Rémi!!!!!!!!  We also have a really tight less-active friend who we have been working with. He's been making some sweet effort at coming back and has even taught with us.  He brought two friends to a rendezvous we had with him last Friday!!!!  Which, by the way, are SUPER golden!! 

    His friend Kevin has not chosen a religion to follow but he knows that God is there and has had lot's of spritual experiences in his life.  He is looking for a place to be baptized because he has felt the need to do it! He absolutely loved our lesson with Emile (our less active friend) and Emile provided his powerful testimony at the end to seal it off!!   Next rendezvous they will be fixing a specific date for his baptism because he has already expressed his desire to do it!!!  I am so excited for him and for Emile and the missionaires here!!!   We have pretty much been working our tails off trying to reactivate other less actives after seeing the fruits from this experience with Emile.  And of course,  LOADS of porting, which comme d'hab is my favorite!!!

    Well I have no idea what else to share. I am still kinda in deep thought mode....Know that I love you and feel your prayers for me everyday and I am so grateful for your examples and testimonies. God lives, and He loves us SO much!! At the measure you keep His commandments is the same measure He will help you in your trials!( Alma 38 ) I love you and look forward to sending a more detailed e-mail on Monday!

 

Love Elder Lyons

WE never got another e-mail on Monday.  I am assuming he is traveling.  He has a really long way to go to get to his new area!