Chicken Pox and Baking

12/19/13

Hey all!!

Sorry that I'm writing you today rather than on Monday. Also, this letter isn't going to be too long...sorry y'all.

So my new companion is Elder Allen Kendall from a town that nobody's ever heard of in Texas. He's pretty cool. This is his 12th transfer so he is ANCIENT! Just kidding...he's only 20. I'm the youngest comp he's ever had on his mission. Fun fact, Elder Kendall was in Marching Band!! Cool stuff right? He and I talk about music/music theory a lot. It's super fun! He's a super smart dude. Also, Elder Kendall LOVES baking!! So guess what we've been doing since he's been sick? Baking! We made blueberry muffins, chocolate chip zuccini bread, peanut butter blossom cookies (his parents sent him some cookie mixes), and homemade bread. And cookie dough for sugar cookies...that just stayed as cookie dough...ha :D

When Elder Kendall and I arrived in Cergy (this is his 4th transfer in Cergy) we had to hurry to a member's house to go and eat. :) You'll never guess what kind of food I ate there...REAL Peruvian food!! I believe it was Rice and Chicken ;) The wife is from Peru and she wanted to give us some food that she grew up with.

So the reason for P-day being today is...MERRY CHRISTMAS, your new comp has the Chicken Pox!! Ha. We've been stuck in the apartement for the past week, waiting for his chicken pox, which he got Wednesday night, to heal. :) haha. It's been good though. We have talked a lot about so many things. He and I are pretty good friends because of the past week.

I don't have much information about Christmas. We'll be eating lunch at a member's house and using their computer to Skype you guys. So I'm guessing sometime around 5-7:30ish Utah time.

So that's been my week. I'm sorry it's so short. Maybe Monday I'll have more to tell you! I love you all!

Have a great week!

-Elder B. Stanton Wilson

Here's the Peruvian meal we ate.

Transfer to Cergy

12/9/13

Hey!!

So this week was a pretty good one. Elder Paitrault and I have really become good friends. Seriously, I'm gonna miss him.

This week we ate at four different houses...I ate SO MUCH!! Tuesday, we went to a member's house and ate some sausage stuff with rice. It was pretty good. I have no idea what it is called though.

Wednesday...oh man. Wednesday was great! We did lots of walking. And then at night we had a mangez-vous (dinner appointment) with a family of members to help their little boy understand baptism and to help prepare him to get baptized because he didn't really understand baptism. I am confident now that he better understands what baptism is. After that, we had another mangez-vous (yes, two mangez-vous in one night...) with some amis. I was SO full that I seriously wanted to vomit!! Haha. It was good though. :)

Saturday, I'm pretty sure we walked like 10km or more!! We walked SO much to contact our coordineés (I forgot the word in English...sorry! Tant pis - never mind) and do some passbacks. Seriously we walked SO much!! It was amazing!! I felt SO good when we finally got home. We finished the night with a Kebab. It was delicious.

I also learned a nice lesson on Saturday: persistance and diligence. There was one passback that we had done like four times already. But Elder Paitrault and I decided we would try one more time. So we went to her house and knocked on the door. She opened up but she was too busy at that moment. But we did (finally!!) get a rendez-vous scheduled with her!! I know that if we work that one, try to get a hold of that person one more time, or knock on just one more door, that the Lord will bless us.

Remember a while ago how I told you that the branch here doesn't have a primary program? Well, I was sorely mistaken! Four kids can do a primary program. That was yesterday for the sacrament meeting. It was pretty awesome!!

Transfers are happening this week!! And guess who's leaving Cherbourg? Elder B. Stanton Wilson!! I'm definitely going to miss the members here and my comp. But I'm so stoked for a new adventure! I'm going to Cergy. Which is in the southern area of Paris. My new companion will be Elder Allen Kendall. I'll let you know about him next week. :) I get my new companion on Wednesday. My new address is

Elder Wilson

56, blvd de l'Evasion, N° C301 

95800 Cergy-Le-Haut

France

Love you guys!!

-Elder B. Stanton Wilson

Thanksgiving in France

12/3/13

Hello ma famille (my family)!

Comment allez-vous? (How are you?)

This past week was pretty different.

Monday was pretty normal with the whole email stuff and then the FHE with the ward in the soir (evening).

Wednesday we had exchanges in Caen with the Zone Leaders. I was with Elder Adams. He's a cool dude. Doesn't talk much. I learned quite a bit of things about missionary work that day. I learned that I don't want to become a robot. :)

Thursday, THANKSGIVING!! We had district meeting (in Caen) and did a Thanksgiving dinner. Oh goodness. There was such a DECENT amount of food!! I ate SO much!! And then we played ping pong (sadly, I'm not the best...I'm the second best...the 1st loser...ha Jaret will understand this joke). I got tons of time to play the piano and sing. It was GREAT!! Then we went back to Cherbourg and had another Thanksgiving dinner with the Branch President and his wife. They are both French, but they decided to celebrate Thanksgiving with the missionaries each year. This year was their fourth year, I believe. Oh man...I gained 3 kilos that day!!

Friday was super cool. We did some jardinage (yard work) for une ancienne ami (an old investigator; old as in currently not an investigator) with the Elder Quorum President. We worked like 2.5 hours and it's not finished yet. We're going back this next Friday if it's a nice day to finish up. Then after the jardinage, we hurried home (with the help of President Perianin, the Elder's Quorum president) to change and then go to Coudeville with the Elder's Quorum President (Coudeville is about 95 km away from Cherbourg and is a part of the branch here in Cherbourg.) to visit an old man in the ward, Frere Mercié. We quickly found out that he doesn't live in Coudeville. He lives in Coudeville Sur La Mer Plaige. When we arrived, he invited us in and we ate some cake and had some jus d'orange (orange juice). And we talked for a bit. He's a super cool dude! And he's so funny!

On Saturday we did more service with the Elder's Quorum President. We helped someone move apartments.. Moving a fridge up 3 flights of stairs is easy if there is an elevator.

Last night we received a call from one of our amis, Sylvie. Her mother was not well at all and was in the hospital. She asked us to pray for her. This morning when we were shopping, she called us again and let us know that her mother had passed away. We went over and talked with her and the Bellessa couple is taking her to her mother right now.

We haven't been able to go back to that family's house yet. They live 40 minutes away by bus. (40 minutes there, and 20 minutes back...I don't know how that works, but it does). It's tough for us to go out there, but we are planning on going out their this next week.

Well, I love you all!! I'm glad Jaret likes fishing now!! Uintah's backpacking trip the week after I get back? Yeah? ;)

Je vous aime! (I love you!)

-Elder Bryant Bodacious Wilson

A Real French Scarf and Lasagna For My Birthday

11/25/13

Hey family!!

This week was a tough one, I don't have very many deets. But we'll see what I can do.

So last P-day we did some service for someone. We were supposed to move quelque meuble (some furniture). We thought it would be a lot and really heavy...but it was only one super light cabinet...ha. Funny right?

Tuesday we had district meeting in Caen (dang, I go to Caen A LOT). Elder Paitrault talked about how we should be the example. He started by doing a "speed date" with all of us. It was pretty hilarious!! Haha. We then did a double exchange with the two Caen Elders in Cherbourg (the second équipe (team) of Elders in Caen). I was with Elder Christensen (a different one than before) and...I'll just say some Elders are very interesting. I learned that there are humans that can turn their heads all the way around and look backwards...definitely something that...um...could be useful?

Wednesday we finished the exchange and sent those Elders back to Caen. The Elder's Quorum President drove us to his grandma's house where we were supposed to share the restoration with her...but it ended up that the Grandma and the Elder's Quorum President's uncle just bashed on our church...ha. I find it really funny when people who haven't ever been to Utah tell me that all the Mormons in Utah are polygamists...ha. So...wednesday was pretty interesting.

My BIRFDAY!! We went to a family's house and ate lunch there...and ended up staying and talking for like three hours (editor's note: meals in France are an ordeal and frequently take much longer than the standard one hour missionary dinner in the U.S.). They gave me a REAL french scarf!! And the wife made lasagna! It was SUPER bon (good)! We then had an FHE with one of our amis (friends) and the Bellessa couple...and had more cake with them. And then we had another FHE with a different ami and the Branch President and his wife where we had some carro (basically, it's Mormon coffee...no caffeine, nothing bad). And you guessed it, just kidding, you didn't. We had some chocolates with that. Not cake. :) haha

Friday we did exchanges with the Caen Zone Leaders. I was with Elder Christensen (not the one that I mentioned above...a different one.) We had fun. We taught a couple lessons, which was pretty great. He's one cool dude.

And that was my past week. This week is Thanksgiving! I'm stoked! We're having district meeting on Thanksgiving in Caen, and we're doing a district-wide Thanksgiving meal. And then we're also having dinner with the Branch President (they celebrate Thanksgiving just because of the Elders!) I'm stoked...I'm expecting to gain 20 lbs this week!

Well, I'm glad you're all doing well! I hope this next week goes well!

Love y'all!!

-Elder Wilson

Three Miracles

Hello Family!

Sounds like you're all having quite the party haha.

About the American food in Paris. American food is already overpriced here and on top of that, in Paris, pretty much everything is even more expensive. And also I don't go to Paris too often, AND when I do, I don't have time to go to different places. Ha.

So this week was pretty good! We went to Rouen (I found out that I've been spelling it wrong all this time...ha :P) for Interviews with le Président Poznanski, district meeting, and a very small zone conference. I love my mission President!! Seriously one of THEE coolest guys ever!

Elder Paitrault is the district leader for the Caen district (which includes Cherbourg and Caen. ha) and he gave THEE best district meeting I have EVER had to this point. It was HILARIOUS!! He started with a "TV Show" called "Petro's Show: l’émission qui plaît trop!"
Ha...did you catch all the puns? (Petro, plaît trop. They both sound close to his name: Paitrault) Well, what he would do was ask a question...but SUPER fast and if you didn't answer in about 3 seconds, you got the question wrong. He had one question for everyone. It was to demonstrate how missionaries can tend to be with with their investigators. They will just throw up all this information on them and then when their ami doesn't understand something, they just move on. It was super good!

So Thursday, we had three miracles happen. So Cherbourg, the area covers Cherbourg and it's surrounding villes. Not just Cherbourg-Octeville. There is a ville called Querqueville and I've had the biggest impression to go there for the longest time. Since week 2 (as in week 2 in France...) to be exact. But finally, we went!!

Miracle 1: Earlier that day, we were supposed to have a rendez-vous with a cool dude named Ashim. But he didn't show up. As we were waiting for the bus to come, he ended up passing by this stop and he came and talked to us. He still wants to meet with us and get baptised. And he told us the best time to get a hold of him. So we will continue to try with him.

Miracle 2: When we arrived in Querqueville, we started porting. At about the 4th door, an older couple answered. They were interested to hear our message but the house was their daughter's and they were just visiting. And their daughter wasn't home. So they told us to come back in about 30 minutes. So we did. And just as we did, their daughter pulled up in her car and we were able to give them a Book of Mormon and we plan to go back to teach the daughter.

Miracle 3: This one is very touching for me. During those 30 minutes we did more porting. We ended up porting a house where a little girl (probably like 6 or 7 years old) answered. So we asked if we could talk to her parents. Her dad came to the door and said that now wasn't a good time to talk to them because they're busy. Just as the door was closing the little girl said something like "it says Jesus!" (meaning our name tags). Her dad told her "they're just here to talk about Him." And this little girl said the sweetest thing I've ever heard any young child say. Elle a dit "Jésus? J'aime Lui bien! Je veux, je veux!" Which means "Jesus? I love Him! I want to, I want to!"Seriously, it was super awesome! And so the dad told us that we should come back another time.

Well, that about sums up my week! Oh and we invited an ami to Church, elle s'appelle Sylvie. She came!! She said that she loves our church.We invited her to get baptized. She told us she would like some time to ponder on it though. So our next rendez-vous, we plan to get a baptismal date set.

Thanks for the package!! I haven't picked it up yet, but I plan to get it today!! I hope all is well for you! And I'm eating lots of fruits and veggies...but I'll try to work out more :D hehe...

I love you all!!

-Elder Wilson :)

Come Join With Us

11/11/13

Family!!

Comment allez-vous? Jaret needs to come to France and buy a French suit. He'd probably love all the clothes here...except he'd die when he sees the price of everything...ha. By the way, random fun fact: gas here is like 1.45 a liter here...which is really close to like 5.10 a gallon...which is like 7 or 8 USD a gallon.

It's nice to hear from y'all. Ha. :) this week was a tough week for me. Although I have some GREAT pictures of the morning horizon!! You'll love them!!

This week we had our Zone meeting and District meeting (the same day ha) in Ruon. It was really good! The theme of the Zone meeting was based off of Elder Utchdorf's talk from the last Conférence Générale "Come Join With Us." I don't remember much of what was said, but I do remember how I felt! :D haha. The spirit was tres fort! It was good!

So we've been working really hard with our old amis lately. Two of these amis are a couple: Francois and Annie. Francois is very agnostic and doesn't really like talking about religion, but he's super nice and a great friend. Whereas Annie is very believing and into religion. We had dinner with them last night at their house. It was good. And we talked about Prophetes and invited them to do what Joseph Smith did.

This week we also started giving the new member lecons to the new converts (that were baptised two transfers before I came...ha). So far we've started with Aimé. And we are planning to start with the other three today and Wednesday.

So there is a drink here, that I have been trying to find since the first time I heard about it (week 2 during my first transfer). It is called Pschitt. Well, I found it at one of our amis' house!! She had some just out on her table, so I asked her where she bought it, and Elder Paitrault and I are gonna go to that store either today or next week to go buy some Pschitt. Bahaha!!

Oh, so this morning, I found some maple extract (from America. The French don't have maple extract) and made maple syrup and french toast!! It was SUCH a great meal!

And on that note, the power of prayer is so amazing! I realized again this week just how important it is to pray sincerely. It's so important that one prays everyday. I don't know how I went without daily prayer before my mission. I know that Heavenly Father is there and that he answers prayers. He hears EVERY prayer.

Okay, so yes, I do have time to practice music. In fact, I play music like every P-day. And in fact, yesterday after church, the branch choir strongly invited us to stay and practice with them [there were 4 dudes and like 5 girls. Just like our choir at home!! ;)] So I would actually love it if you sent me that sheet music! Could you also send me "All Of Me" by Jon Schmidt? (Jon Schmidt is approved to play and listen to in my mission.) It's somewhere in my files on the computer. Thanks :D

I'm SO ticked about the language thing (Grantsville Elementary will begin language immersion next year in French)!! That would have made learning French SO MUCH easier! Which comes to answer another question of yours: Yes, my comp helps me with French. And in fact, I help him with English as well. It's pretty legit!

We are just over one branch. Ha...our branch boundaries are bigger than Tooele County. It's about the size of Tooele County and Salt Lake County combined.

Well, I love you all!! Hope all goes well with the primary program!

-Elder B. Stanton Wilson

P.s. Our primary is like 4 or 5 kids. :) No primary program here.

A Native French Companion

11/4/2013

Maman! Et Famille :)

First of all, French people are cool.

I was SUPER surprised that they transferred Elder Lerdahl. Normalement they don't do that. And I was SUPER scared of being with a native French missionary...thoughts of "How are we going to communicate?" and stuff like that came into my mind. But, it's okay! He speaks English well enough that if he doesn't understand something I say, I can say it in French. But we both have to talk to each other in our native languages very slowly. Ha. Mornings are funny. We both wake up and start talking in our languages to each other at a normal speed...and then we both end up saying "Vous parlez tres vite!" Ha. :) It's hilarious!

Elder Yohan Paitrault (sounds like You-ahn Pay-troll) is a cool dude. We work hard and pretty well together. He LOVES to talk though. But that's good for me...because then I don't have to...JUST KIDDING! I still talk ha. En fait, my French is progressing SO much better with him. We speak French outside the apartment and anglais dans l'appartement. :) It's cool. Fun fact about Elder Paitrault, he eats. A LOT. More than me. I never thought I'd ever say this, but I got out eaten by a Frenchie. En fait, I get out eaten by him EVERY meal.

This week was weird, but number wise (don't worry, I'm not a stat-monkey though!) it was the best week I've had so far! We did lots of calling people this week so that's good!

Yesterday we started the new member lecons avec un homme qu'il s'appelle Aimé

 de Dieu (yes, his name is Loved of God). He is a refugee from Africa. And he also speaks Lingala...he taught me a couple things in lingala! It was cool! Kombo na ngai Elder Wilson! Sango nini?

Not a lot happened this week...but one of our amis (who is...not really an ami anymore...but he's still a GREAT friend!) paints pictures. And at our last rendez-vous with him, I asked him if I could buy a painting he did of a beach...and he gave it to me FOR FREEEEEEEEEE!!! So now I have a painting...that I should probably send home. Ha. :)

To answer about the Powdered Sugar and Graham Crackers. Powdered sugar yes! Graham Crackers pas de tout. (not at all) I would LOVE it if you sent me some!! Oh...and if it is possible...maybe a jar of your amazing green beans? :D Merci bien! :)

Well, I'm doing well. I'm glad all is well back at home!! :) Love y'all so much!! Have fun with your sleeping test, mommy! :)

à bien tôt!

-Elder B. Stanton Wilson

Elder Wilson vs. Dreaming the Reality

This week was TOUGH.

We had exchanges again with the Elders from Caen though!! It was good for the Caen Elders to get away from each other for a bit. We switched villes this time to be more productive! Haha I was with Elder Withers again. He dies (finishes his mission) this Thursday. We did some good work together.

So...my this letter is gonna be really odd and probably not make any sense. Ha. My thoughts are so crazy right now...I'll tell you why later :D Spoilers (doctor who quote)

So we didn't find any new investigators this week. But we did see Christophe again. He is still progressing!! :) but...he "believes in all religions." But he is making progress! We got him to pray at the end of our last lesson with him!! The spirit was definitely present!

We have been teaching the recent converts (they got baptized before I was here) a lot.

So as I said above, this week was tough. I had some depression this week that I was trying to just get over. It took a while, but I think I know what will help me: Morning Work-outs!!!! I had forgotten how amazing it feels to work out.

After Branch counsel on Saturday, the Branch President, President Martin, came up to me and asked. "Elder Wilson, do you want to improve your French?" I replied "Yes, of course I do!" thinking that he'd say something along the lines of "you need to TALK then." Well...that's not what he said. He said "well, giving a talk in Sacrament meeting will help you improve. Can you do that?" So...I gave a talk yesterday in Sacrament meeting. :) Hehe. It wasn't bad and everyone understood me! :)

Okay now, explanation for the subject and why my thoughts are so crazy right now:

Okay, so transfers are coming up. And "I had a dream last night..." (Mayday Parade quote...for Jaret. :D) that mon pere (my trainer) and I were transferred. And that I was going to train somebody..even though I'm not fully trained...well, this morning, the repertoire was sent out. Now normally, they don't split up a bleu and his trainer until after the bleu has been trained (12 weeks, which is two transfers.) Well...I'm getting a new companion. Elder Lerdahl is going to the Neuf-trois area (basically the ghetto of Paris.) and I'm staying in Cherbourg. My new companion is a native French speaker from the south of France. He's been out for like just over a year.

So...my dream is basically reality...crazy right? I can dream the future!! Haha just kidding.

Hey, do you remember Elder Korban Lehman (OH, NO! NOT ANOTHER CLAM CHOWDER EXPLOSION!)? Well I saw him a two weeks ago in Rennes. Here is a picture he and I took.

Also, here is a picture of Elder Withers and I with our AWESOME ties!! :)

Elder Wilson vs. The Afghane

10/21/13

Hey Mommy, Pa, and Kaysen!

First off, that sounds like a pretty legit camping trip!! I'm a little (A LOT) jealous. :P Let's go to the mountains in 2 years when I get back. :D deal? Deal!

Okay so, this week...was the week of TONS of travel.

Monday: P-day not even over yet, we headed over to Paris to spend the night so we could be on time to my legality stuff on Tuesday. We stayed with the Elders in Paris, Elder Walton and Elder Amico. We had a Raclette Fete (fete=party). When you have raclette, you boil lots of spuds and smash them on your plate, then you melt this cheese called raclette, and put that on your potatoes and eat it all with a bunch of meat (lardons, jambon, salami, etc..). Raclette is an extremely greesy, smelly, and tasty cheese. But...let's just say that the next morning...I woke up sweating greese. :D hehe Oh, and raclette is a Swiss thing (Elder Amico is from Switzerland)

So Tuesday was legality. The AP's did a little training that was pretty great. It was a review of week 2 district meeting, which was on The Spirit of Finding. Then all the bleus went to the OFII building (no idea what it stands for) for our legality. All I had to do was pee in a cup, get weighed, and have my chest X-rayed. So about the Subject for the email. :D Afgahn. Well, when I looked at my papers, the OFII building messed up my nationality and instead of American, they put Afgahn!!! BAHAHA!! I laughed so hard! I took a picture of it...but I'll send it next week. I'm on the dinosaur computer this week. :P To fix the problem, they just crossed out Afgahn and wrote Americain.

Oh...and...I STILL haven't seen the Eiffel Tower yet!! :P

After legality was all done, my comp and I had to jet to get to our train. We went to from Paris to Caen because we had district meeting in Caen the next day. So we spent the night with the Caen Elders!! :D Ha

On the train, we taught someone about the book of Mormon and gave one to them, get her number and gave it to the Caen Sisters. The person was just new to Caen and wanted to find a church for her and her family. It was a cool experience! I don't know what's happened with her now though.

Wednesday was district meeting. It was good. I don't remember what it was on...and it was all in French. When we have meetings in French (all of our meetings), I'll be paying attention really well, getting some good stuff out of what they say, think I'll be understanding...and then right as soon as the meeting is done, I can't remember a word that was said!! Haha...it's rather...sad. :P I do remember how I feel during these meetings though.

Friday we taught Christophe again! And he kept his engagements!! I never thought it'd be this cool to have a progressing ami!! Christophe is such a cool dude! He's in a Reggae band!! He's a super chill dude.

Saturday, we went out to Rennes for stake conference. The Bellessa couple drove us, so that was nice. :)

So this past week, we were only in Cherbourg for 2 full days.. :P we still somehow ended up teaching the most lessons we've ever taught. The Lord truly blesses us! I love it!

Oh and to pay for all our trips, for train tickets, we just use our blue card, which is like mission funds I think? For food, we have MSF (Monthly Spending Funds?) we get about 180 euros per month I think. The price of things over here are usually more expensive. Speaking of which, for my birthday or Christmas or whatevs, could you send me Peanut Butter? :D and maple extract? Thanks :)

Well, that was my week :) Love ya'll!

Je t'aime beaucoup!

-Elder B. Stanton Wilson

Exchange and Mangez-Vous (Dinner Appointments)!

10/14/13

Ma Famille!!

That sounds like a pretty awesome week!! :) I'm jealous about the yellow vans and the backpacking trip. Get me some yellow vans, too. Please? :D About the Roller Coaster, that sounds just like Poppy. Haha :) (Jesse and Kaysen spent a whole day building a K'nex roller coaster, thinking they would use it as part of a science project. They ended up not using it after all!)

This week we had exchanges with the Caen Elders again, this time in Cherbourg, though. I was with Elder Withers. It was his last exchange before he dies. It was AWESOME!! We taught 3 lessons together in this exchange. Elder Withers served in Cherbourg about a year ago so he knew tons of people that we could go see. There were some that weren't in our area book that we went to go see. It was way cool! It was a GREAT exchange!

We had two mangez-vous (dinner appointments) this week! It was delicious! The first mangez-vous was with the Branch President and his wife. We had a vegetable lasagna, some sea food (salmon, shrimp, and calamari (calamari is actually pretty good), a salad, and, of course, cheese with pain. It was really good! The next mangez-vous was with another family in the ward. We had pasta with REALLY good sauce, and then apple crisp for dessert. All of the food from both families were AMAZING!!

This past week we had an awesome miracle! We went out contacting for a couple minutes after doing some passbacks (when porting, some people will say to come back another day because they're too busy at the moment. So we call them "passbacks" because we pass them back.) and like the third guy we contacted stopped (only about 30% of the people here will stop and listen. And then,  usually they just say they're not interested). Well, I don't know exactly what was said (because I am still learning French...haha) but we set up a rendez-vous with this man. His name is Christophe and he's about in his late 20's, early 30's. So the day came for our rendez-vous (we just decided to meet at the church for the rendez-vous) and usually, when we set up lessons from contacting, the people fruge us (when someone fruges you, they don't show up to the rendez-vous.).. But he came!! And we have ANOTHER rendez-vous with him this week!! :)

So this week, I get to do my legality stuff. I have no idea what I'll be doing for it. We do our legality stuff in Paris, so my comp and I are off to Paris tonight, and staying the night with some Elders from Paris so that we can be at the training for my legality on time. We then have a district meeting in Caen on Wednesday, so after my legality stuff is over, we're going to Caen and spending the night with the Caen Elders.

So these pictures are: 

What I usually eat in the morning. It's a cereal that's like granola, but different. And it also has chocolate in it. I cut up a banana in it.

The Hotel I stayed in the first night I arrived in France. We got to stay in a hotel before we met our trainers. It was a pretty legit hotel!

The sunset from our appartement the first night I arrived in Cherbourg. Cherbourg is very beautiful. I really am loving it.

The work is going slow here, but it's going. It's crazy to see all the miracles that God gives. I'm so thankful to be here!

This church is definitely true.

I wish you all a good week this next week! :)

-Elder B. Stanton Wilson

What We Do on P-Day

10/7/13

Hey famille!!

Poppy, happy birthday 2 days ago!! You're old now! Is that like 44? dang? pa! ;)

On P-day, nous faisons nos etudes, ensuite nous faisons les cours (we do the shopping). After shopping for food and stuff for the next week, we head on home for lunch (usually une baguette avec le frommage.) and then we head to the church to email. If we need to do laundry, we also do our laundry. :) and then we chill until dinner. We'll either go into Centreville (the main part of town) and go into some stores just to look, or buy a patisserie, or make some dessert. Quelque chose comme ça. (Something like this.) Then we'll eat dinner and then go out contacting for an hour and a half. We then go to Soirée Familiale (family home evening) at the church. And it usually ends around 21 heures (hours) so we go back home. And that is P day. :)

This week, we had exchanges in Caen with our zone leaders. It was SO awesome!! I was with Elder Christensen; he's a chill guy. We ended up teaching one lesson that day.

The next day (Wednesday) we went to Paris for a zone conference. Our goal for these next two transfers is for every équipe (companionship) to bring a family into the Fold of Christ, whether that's baptizing a partial-member family or anything like that.

We worked super hard the whole week. We're really struggling to find people to teach. Every night we go porting and frapper (hit) tons of ports with no success. It's kind of discouraging. Although, I don't let it get me down. I know that as long as I do my best, the Lord will help me. And I also know that if I ask for help, He will help me.

Conference Generale was a huge blessing for me. I LOVED it! I watched half of the first session en français and the rest en anglais. But, we haven't had the opportunity to watch the Sunday sessions at all yet. I'm really excited to read the talks that were given that day.

I loved what Elder Uchtdorf said; "doubt your doubts before you doubt your faith." That is such a powerful statement.

As for pictures, you'll have to wait until next week. This week I'm on the dinosaur computer (its running windows 2000 at like half speed...) but next week, you'll get some AWESOME pictures!! :)

I love you all!!

-Elder Wilsôn

I'm Loving the Work Here

9/30/13

Hey ma famille!!

It's cool that tout est bien!! :) (all is well)

So this week, we had some awesome miracles!! Elder Lerdahl and I have been working SUPER hard to find new amis (friends)...but it seems like nobody is interested. Port after port. Person after person. It was starting to get really discouraging for both of us. But then, on our way to Ruenne last week for a Zone meeting and District meeting, we received a call from a guy named Ashim. Ashim is a refugee (oh by the way, there are TONS of refugee's here.) from Sierra Leone. He speaks English but is trying to learn French. So, in this call, Ashim said "I have been looking for a church to go to and a friend gave me this number. I want to go to your church EVERY week." It was CRAZY cool! So we set up a rendez-vous (appointment) to show him where our church was and to find more about him and find out his beliefs. We shared the message of the Restoration with him, and he just LOVED everything. He asked great questions, too. It was an amazing rendez-vous! He told us about some crazy trials he had...and as a result of leaving his previous religion, he got stabbed!! He showed us the scar. It was LEGIT! We'll be meeting with him more.

And here is the other miracle:

A week from Sunday, we were contacting people in the street, and we contacted this one guy that was SUPER nice. He said he believed in God and Christ, but that because of the corruption in the Catholic church, he doesn't want to have much to do with church/religion. We tried to set up a rendez-vous but he said "it has to be natural, like when you meet a woman. If we meet again, we'll set up a rendez-vous, if not, then it wasn't meant to be." Well, during last week, we went contacting. And just as we were gonna start porting, we ran into him again!! So we said bonjour (hello). The first thing he said was "Okay, you can pass by my house." and gave us his name, address, and phone number!! :D Pretty cool right?! " :)

So I'm doing really well. Although, would you send me some recipes for desserts. Also, would you look up some recipes for a fruit/vegatable shake for the morning? I wanna try some new things. My comp is pretty good at making sure we eat healthy. He's been having this shake every morning that has pineapple juice, an apple, carrots, and spinach. He says it tastes good and that he feels more energetic because of the veggies. So I just wanna get some different ideas for some shakes like that that I can do. :D Thanks.

This week, we'll be doing exchanges with the Elders over in Caen (which is about an hour-ish away from Cherbourg). I'm pretty stoked! My first exchanges! We also have a zone conference in Paris. I'm stoked to go back to Paris for a day!! :)

Oh so far, I've had 4 types of cheese. Le chevre, Camembert, Caprice des Dieux (the whim of Gods), et Roquefort. Caprice is my favorite thus far. I tried some new patisseries. One is like a brownie with chocolate fondant. Oh my. It was SO good!! I'm digging this food.

About worrying about weight, it depends on how you eat. My comp and I eat healthy. Some Elders gain 10+ pounds because they eat TONS of rubbish. I did gain some weight in the MTC, so I'm trying to get that off now. I wanna drop about 15 pounds by the time I get home. I gained like 15-20 pounds in the MTC. So I weight about 80-81 kg. I wanna be 75-77 kg. :) It's gonna happen!

I'm loving the work here. I know this is where the Lord wants me. I know that this church is true. Je sais que Joseph Smith ete un vrai prophete. Je sais que Dieu nous aime et nous sommes ses enfants. Je sais que le livre de Mormon est vrai. (I know that Joseph Smith was a true prophet. I know that God loves us and we are his children. I know the Book of Mormon is true.)

Dieu soit avec toi jusqu'au revoir! (God be with you till we meet again!)

Je vous aime beaucoup!! (I love you very much.)

-Elder Wilson

Arrival in France

9/23/13

Okay...les Americanes have no idea what eclairs are. French eclairs are WAY better!!! Um, I've enjoyed most of the food here, except Ratatouille isn't my favorite. It's alright, but it gives me TERRIBLE farts and isn't totally tasty. Um...the food here is TONS better than in America. That patisserie is called Pain au Chocolat (bread with chocolate). It's basically a croissant avec chocolat chips. It's alright. Pain au Chocolate aux almonds is WAY better though. It's the same thing, except with almonds. And the pain is a different recipe...so I guess it's not the same thing...haha :) The cheese is really good here. I've had trois different types of cheese. And oh, by the way, I'm gonna get fat. ;)

Mon colleuge is Elder Dane Lerdahl from Stansbury Park, UT. CRAZY right? He went to Grantsville High in 07-08 and 08-09 but went to Stansbury his Junior year. He's a pretty chill guy. He has six months before he dies (before his mission is over). Crazy thing, before he went to SHS, he hung out with Bridger Boman!! Cool, right?

I'm serving in Cherbourg. It is in Northern France by the English Channel. I believe is has the biggest port in the world. There is one branch in our area. There are like 30-40 members tops...ha. Yesterday at church I think we had 26 including us. Crazy Right?! I have met basically all the members that were at church on Dimanche.

We live in an apartment. It's pretty small. We're on the third floor (in France, the ground level floor is floor 0...). It's chill though. The stair case is wicked crazy. And hyper steep!!! We do laundry in our apartment. We have a washing machine and a dryer.

We cook basically ever meal we eat. We do have a mangez-vous (a dinner appointment) with the Branch President and his wife this week to, as Mademoiselle Martin said "eat fish with them." :) For lunch today, my companion and I bought a baggette and pain au chocolat aux amonds. We ate our baggets avec le fromage (with cheese)  and had our patisserie pour dessert.

After we arrived in Cherbourg, the older couple serving in this area picked us up and drove us to a rendezvous with some new converts. I was able to introduce myself, say where I am from, and bear my testimony. After the lesson, Erwan, the 14 year old boy (who isn't baptized...YET. His sisters just got baptized. He's unsure though.) asked about what I want to study after my mission and asked about what I did before I went on a mission. So I told him about my band and my passion for music. It was pretty DECENT!!!

The language is difficult...but it's coming. We do TONS of finding, so I get to practice a lot. It's good. Um...I understand un petit peu (a little). It's progressing though.

We don't have a car in our area. We walk almost everywhere. To get to the furthest parts, we're gonna use the bus, but we haven't used the buses yet. There isn't a subway system in Cherbourg.

I love my mission president!! He's so cool!! And he's pretty funny!!

Well, this week, on Thursday, my first full day, we went contacting after our studies. Ten minutes into it, a bird pooped on my suit...so we went back to the apartment, cleaned my suit, and went back out. Bahaha!! It was funny. Um...basically, the French people are usually really nice, but they don't seem to care about religion. It's probably because the Catholic church has offended them in one way or another. True story.

On Friday, we were waiting to meet with a member to teach an ami (friend). While we were waiting, some random old guy starting yelling at us. He swore at us a bunch and kept saying Vous etes quoi? Tu es quoi? (which means you are what? The second way is informal and REALLY rude.)

Lots of people think we're Temoigne Jehovah's (Jehovah's witnesses). It's not good. Apparently, the TJ proselytizers are pretty intense and aggressive.

This week has been good! I love you all! BTW, Jantzen got his mission call!! He's going to Cali. He leaves January 15th!!

I love you all! I wish you all the best!! :D

-Elder Wilson

The One and Only True Church on the Earth

9/16/13

Mommy!! And Daddy, and the Kiddo:

This past week has been so great!! Our district is so close!! It's so sad to part from les missionaires going to Lyon. They left around 5 this morning. I report to the travel office at 11:30 and should get to the airport around 1ish (we're taking trax...ha) so I should be able to call you around 2-4. My flight is supposed to depart at 5:10 pm. It's a straight flight to Paris. Everyone in my group got their visa's! :) YAY!!! There are 19 in my travel group, 17 Elders and duex Sœurs.

This past week has been absolutely great!! We've bonded so much as a district and my companionship is AMAZING!! I'm really gonna miss Elder Hedquist. A funny thing about him is, well you know what that MTC food does to ya, right? The gas it gives you? Yeah...well some nights, he wakes up for a split second, farts, laughs for half a second, and falls right back to sleep. He has NO recollection of doing this!! It's hilarious!!!

We haven't really learned much about the culture in France. But apparently to say "this is my girlfriend" in French you say "C'est ma poule" which translates as "This is my hen." We've learned the importance of pronunciation and using the correct gender with nouns. Pronunciation is important because if you have a cool sweater and you wanna say "this is my sweater" you say "C'est ma pull" (the U makes the U sound kind of as in Cute") but if you say it all American, you can end up saying "C'est ma poule" (the ou sound makes an oo sound, as in boot). Or like in the word "beaucoup" which means "a lot". If you say it like boo-coo, instead of boh-coo, you're saying "nice butt." (except a more inappropriate word.) And there is your French lesson for the day. :)

While at the MTC, I've learned so much about myself and about who I want to become. I used to be SO prideful (and let's face it, I still am. Just not as much :D) and used to think I could do everything on my own. The MTC has really humbled me. I am nothing without God, Christ, and the Atonement. And now, I am relying more on Them than I ever have before.

For our last class, we talked a little bit about why God gives us trials. Our teacher brought up a talk from Elder David A. Bednar. http://www.lds.org/ensign/2012/04/the-atonement-and-the-journey-of-mortality?lang=eng read it. It's amazing!!

Last night for our sunday night Devo, Ron Tanner spoke to us. Ron Tanner works with T.C. Christiansen and has co-produced 17 Miracles, A Stone Cutter, and Ephraim Hanks, and a couple other films. Well, he showed us some clips from Ephraim Hanks and there was one scene where a boy and a girl kiss. The MTC went WILD when they kissed. I looked over at my companion and was like "Oh my gosh!! What is he showing us here?!" just as a joke. Some Elder behind me yelled out "He shoots, he scores!!" It was SOOOO funny!! If you can, go watch Ephraim Hanks if you can. It's only been out for like 3ish months. From the clips we saw, it was so great!!

I'm so excited to start this next chapter in my life. I'll get REAL food soon!! Yay!! I'm so excited to do the Lord's Work. And I feel so blessed to have the opportunity to learn French, and preach to the French people.

This gospel is amazing, and this church is definitely the one and only true church on the Earth. I love you all so much!!

-Elder Bryant Stanton Wilson 

This is Where I Want to Be

Ma Famille!!

Jaret is engaged! That's CRAZY!!! I can't believe it. Well, I can...but I didn't think it'd happen THIS fast!! I was SOOOO excited when I read his Dear Elder to me the day after he proposed. 

Vivre la Grantsville!!! Yeah!! I love that we won!! Allez le bleu (rouge, in this case, I guess.) :) Danny Haynie, one of my friends from Grantsville, got his mission call this past Friday!! He's going to the El Salvador San Salvador East Mission!!! He reports to the Mexico MTC on November 27th!! Cool beans!! he also told me that BYU dominated their last game. It was like 40-21!! Ha

Kaysen, keep playing hard!! I'm gonna send you a letter soon! You should get it within the next couple days.

Send my congrats to Mark and Becca on the birth of their baby boy!! That's so exciting!! And when I get back, William will almost be 2 years old!! So he won't have much recollection of me not being in his life!! :D Jaret, Sam, you're next!! ;)

Yes, I do have my travel itinerary. We report to the travel office on Monday, September 16th at 1 PM (so you will get an email from me that day! :D) and my flight is at 5:10 p.m. I'm supposed to arrive in France at 11:15 a.m. (France time, not Utah time.) It's just one straight flight. No lay-overs. :) Haha the elders going to the Lyon mission first fly to Chicago, then to London, then to France. They have to report to the travel office at 3:30 a.m.!!! And they don't get to France until 11:05 (France time) hahaha!!! I'm so blessed to only have one flight! :)

I'm seriously so excited to go to France!! The MTC is getting better and better every day...but I really am anxious to get out at and teach God's children and help them come to know of the truth, par le Saint-Esprit.

I'm getting a lot better at French!! Each day my French is improving and I'm remembering so much. It's all because of the Lord and His help that He has given me. I truly am so blessed to be here right now. I love it!

About guitar and music and singing, I miss it all so much, but I love being here and serving the Lord. I'd much rather be doing His work than at home or at college. This is where I want to be. This is where the Lord wants me to be. And this is where He needs me to be. He gave me my musical talent, but I am giving that up right now so that I can serve Him. And I've already been blessed with musical opportunities here. :) The age change that was announced last year is such a blessing for me in my life.

I'm still not sure which scripture I want to include on my missionary plaque. I'll let you know next Monday.

This week was pretty good. We learned how to make subjunctive sentences in French. So now I can say something like: Dieu nous donne les commandements afin que nous puissions avoir bonheur. (God to us gives the commandments so that we can have happiness. Or, put more simply, God gives us commandments so that we can have happiness.) It was easy for me to learn. Much easier than the tenses we had to learn.

Mon collegue and I are getting along pretty well. We're really starting to crack down and work more efficiently. It's AWESOME!! :) Well, ask me more questions!! It's hard for me to right long letters when you don't give me very many questions to answer. :) haha I love ya'll!!

-Elder B. Stanton Wilson

Here are some pictures!!

This is Elder Brockbank (from Lehi) and Elder Nicolson (from Scotland) posing at our temple walk yesterday. They're in a different district but we play soccer together during gym time and they're some of my good friends here.

Elder Edwards is from Nevada. He's going to Tahiti...last week at the temple walk, I took a selfie on his camera and he has kept it. He's another one of my friends. He's pretty funny!

Elder Haumani and I are WAY good friends!! He's from Takapoto in French Polynesia. His English is getting better. He leaves the week after me. He's so cool!!

This is my district with our teacher Sœur Scott on her last day of teaching us. She served in the Geneva, Switzerland mission (which is now the France, Lyon mission.) She became more than just a teacher for us; she became one of our best friends.

Please Send Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread!

Ma famille!! Je t'aime beaucoup!! Je suis reconnaissent pour votre e-mails! (My family! I love you so much! I recognize your e-mails!)

I'm in the MTC, not on the West Campus (the BYU campus) We were supposed to move to West campus on Sep 16 (the day I fly to Paris) but we're not going to be moving at all anymore. Sempas!! :)

For choir, we just learn one song on Sunday and then sing it in the Tuesday devotional. Each week, we learn a new song. But since this week was Fast Sunday, we didn't have choir practice. Although, today at 1, I'm having a practice with 3 other Elders to learn an A cappella song to audition for a musical number. I'm stoked!! :)

That's so cool about all the football stuff, and especially about Grantsville beating Tooele!! I heard there was a drug bust in Tooele and lots of varsity members were suspended from 3 games? Sounds like Ky is having a great season all ready!!

And It sounds like Kaysen's doing well in Football!! Yeah!! TE!! Tight End is THEE best!!!! What's his number? Is he 82?!?!?! :D

I found out that a kid that graduated with me died a couple weeks ago in a car accident...it's so crazy how fast stuff like that can happen!! It makes me wonder if that would've happened to me if I hadn't decided to serve a mission.

This week was pretty good, although I had some struggles. Satan was working hard on me this week, but yesterday, I asked the Branch President for a Priesthood Blessing. In it he addressed some concerns that I didn't even talk to him about. Priesthood blessings truly are inspired of God. The language is getting easier every day! It's still hard, but I'm getting a lot better. Yesterday, along with fasting from food (which I went 24 hours! and it wasn't even hard!!), my district fasted from English. It was hard, and we'd slip into English occasionally, but it was a neat and humbling experience. I didn't talk much though...ha. But I feel like the next time I fast, I will fast from English again as well as food.

Our first two teachers we had quit working because of school. So we no longer have Soeur Scott nor Frere Saguibo. We got so close!! They gave us their emails so we could write to them. I'm definately going to write them when I'm out in the field!! Our new teachers are Frere Laguan, who served in Montreal and got back 2 months ago, and Frere Blosil, who served in the France Talouse mission (I don't know how to spell it...ha). Frere Blosil has been back for a couple years and is the drummer for a band called Red Yeti. I told him about my band I was in before I died (before the mission. That's a joke that we say in the MTC...ha) and he was really interested in looking up my band. It made me excited!! :D haha

This past Tuesday, Elder Neil L. Andersen spoke to us. It was SOOO cool!! He came and shook lots of hands of the choir after. He was like 3 rows away from me and stopped shaking hands...mais c'est marche :) (but it works).

For gym this week, I went out to the field a lot and played football (soccer). Here, you can't slide tackle (for obvious reasons) nor head the ball (also for obvious reasons). But it makes playing soccer more difficult. Although, one day, I was on a ROLL!! I had 3 assists and 1 goal!! I usually average about 1 or 2 assists and score about 1/3 of the games I play in. The foreigners that play soccer are SOOOO good! Elder Elvidge is SO good at soccer!! And there's an Elder in my zone, Elder Randall, that played soccer for BYU before his mission. He's SICK!! He also lived in France for like 3 years and played in a French Football Club.

So one of my friends here at the MTC is Elder Haumani. He's from an island in French Polynesia called Takapoto and he showed me some pictures of his house and things he'd do before his mission...it is SO beautiful!! I decided that if my musical career goes how I want it to go, I'm gonna go to Takapoto to visit Elder Haumani with my band and play a show. ;) Elder Haumani is here to learn English better. He's getting TONS better!! His companion, Elder Manu is from Tonga and is HILARIOUS!! I talked about them in a letter you'll be getting soon.

So in that letter, I asked for you to send me some cheeps and salsa. But don't worry about that! :) If you send me any food, send me homemade Pumpkin Chocolate Chip bread! :) I'd just LOVE that!!! :D Please?

Well I love you all so much!! Thank you for the support you give me! And thank you for the letter about the Whitworths! That was cool to read! I knew Landon was in the Palmyra Pageant, but I didn't know his whole family was in the pageant too!! Um, if you could, the next letter you send me, will you send pictures with it? Of the Family, of the garden? Of quilts maybe? Ha just anything. And they don't even have to be high quality, just print them out and send them. Thanks :) I love y'all so much!!

-Elder Wilson!!! :D

Learning to Love My Companion

Bonjour, cher famille!!

First off, that's awesome about the quilts haha. You and your quilts, mom. :)

Kaysen, that's awesome! Keep playing hard, okay? There will be times that you might miss something and some people do get really upset like that kid. Just brush it off and do better next play or next game. Okay? You're just learning the sport. Don't let anyone bring you down. :)

That's so awesome about the football game!! Tell Ky I said congrats and good luck against Tooele. We're so gonna beat Tooele. They're always rubbish. ;) (as Elder Elvidge, my district leader from England, would say) But um, tell Levi I said good luck in that game. I know that he's a GREAT player! I hope he's on varsity!!

Sharing time sounds like it was fun :)

I know who Brad Wilcox is!! He was supposed to speak earlier but didn't come because of the snow :P

My week was a roller coaster, emotionally and physically. I was pretty depressed and discouraged at the beginning of this week. But I got working harder and I got happier, which I never ever thought working harder would make me happier...I always thought it'd just make me more tireder. ;) ha. Um...things with my companion are weird. But I've realized most of the problems we've had are because of pride issues (haha me...  :P) and just little stupid things. Today during the temple session, I prayed so hard to be able to love my companion and after the session, I had this overwelming feeling of love for him. It was so amazing!! So I feel like we're cool now. :)

The language is hard. But I'm starting to get more confident with it now. I can bear my testimony now!! And now, instead of giving up and resorting back to English, I search really hard to find the words that the Lord would have me say. The last lesson we had, I was able to come in without having things written down and just bear my testimony. I even was able to challenge our investigator to read in the Book of Mormon and to Pray about it!! I was able to say so many things I didn't even know I could say!! The Lord truly works miracles. This week we started TRC (I don't know what that stands for) but we go in and talk to a member about the gospel. The member is just themself, instead acting like an investigator. The first person we talked to in TRC was a lady in her mid 20's. She plays music!!! I was able to talk to her about music stuff in French!! It was so COOL!!!

I head out to France on Sept 16. I CAN NOT wait!! I've gained 5 pounds here already!! :P I'm trying to eat healthier though. And I'm gonna start running like 20 minutes during gym time so I can eat whatever I want. :D hehe Just kidding, I'm not gonna eat whatever I want, I'm gonna eat healthy. But it's crazy to think that I've been here 3 weeks already!! I feel like I just got here this past Wednesday!!

Things with my district are going so well this week!! On Tuesday, after the devotional, Elder 1 (Elder 2's comp) FLIPPED out at Elder 3 and Elder 4...who were having some MAJOR issues. So we had a district meeting right then about the Elder 3 and 4 issue and resolved it. Our district is doing a LOT better this week. :)

So I don't know if I've told you who has come and spoke with us yet so here goes: We've had Elder Richard G. Scott, Vai Sikahema, and I just completely forgot the others..haha. But this Tuesday is being broadcast to the other MTC's (just like with Elder Richard G. Scott) so I'm pretty sure we're gonna hear from one of the twelve or possibly even someone from the 1st Presidency!!! :D

I don't know if I've told you this either, I go to the MTC choir every Sunday!! I love IT!! We sing in each Tuesday Devotional, this week we'll be singing an Arrangement of Lead Thou, Me On. I'm stoked!! It's so powerful!! Um..so this week I went to go audition for a musical number: How Great Thou Art (I was singing it and accompanying myself) but the people in charge wouldn't let me audition because the judge doesn't like people accompanying themselves and I just made up the piano part. The judge wants to see sheet music. :P I guess I'll just make sheet music for it after the mission. And record it. :) ha

As for the scripture, I really like James 4:7. But I'm going to search more and find a different scripture :) I want a longer one on my plaque.

I love all y'all!! :)

-Elder Wilsôn

A Few Pics

 Elder Wilson was greeted by this missionary who just happened to have been his roommate the previous summer at a BYU Cross Country Camp! Tender mercy #1.

Meeting high school friends at the MTC makes a missionary feel right at home!

Hello, Elder Castagno. . .  (tender mercy #2)

. . . and Elder Fonger from Grantsville! (tender mercy #3)

Here is Elder Wilson's room and his companion. His companion likes to study and wants to be obedient. Tender mercy #4.

A Little Homesick

Mommy and la Famille!!

Okay...so first, the language is coming...alright. It's pretty tough. I definitely know that I can't learn it without Heavenly Father's help. I'm learning so much though!! I really can't wait to go to France and be fully immersed in the language!!

Second, San Fran was alright. I woke up at 2 A.M. to be to the bus by 2:30 A.M. On the way to the airport, there was a missionary that was going out to the field to Oklahoma. His name is Elder Web!! Remember Mr. Web from Mountain Crest High School that you taught with? Yeah. His son. That I went to Millville Elementary with. He was the starting quarterback this last year for Mountain Crest. We talked about some of our old friends and talked about how we used to play soccer together at recess and stuff like that. It was SO weird to get oot and aboot though. Bishop and Sister Cole were on my flight to San Fran. It was nice to see some familiar faces. The trip in all was THE biggest waste of time. We got to the French Consolate, verified that our name was spelled correctly, took a picture, then left. We went to the Fisherman's Wharf and ate there after. There was a crepe shop. I got a breakfast crepe. It was SO good!! It had scrambled eggs and cheese in it. Mmmhmm!! :) But it was such a long day!

Third, my first P-day was last Monday. We go to the Temple every Monday. :) It's great!! I HAVE to do laundry every week. Otherwise I won't have any clothes for gym. I did have to buy detergent and we just use the cards they give us to do laundry. It costs like 50 cents a load, so only like $1 to do all my laundry. My comp and I do our laundry together to save monies. On P-day, we just chill. We have gym Tuesday-Friday and PPE on Saturday, so there's not much of a reason to work out on P-day. :D

Things with my comp are going well. He seems very quiet and reserved. Maybe he's just not comfortable yet? We do have a good companionship though, so don't take that wrong.

The district is SO good!! We're all like brothers!! It's awesome!! Except there is one companionship in our district that doesn't get along...like at all. And we all feel the tension. So until that companionship learns how to love each other, we'll have that tension. But the rest of us are super close!! It's pretty great!! Although, everybody is really sarcastic...and it's kinda hurtful sometimes. It tends to make me feel like I'm not a part of "the group."

We have taught four lessons...except me. I've only taught three. The fourth lesson was taught on the day I went to San Fran. The first lesson was SOOOO awkward because we didn't know how to speak French very well...ha. The second lesson was TONS better!! We spoke it better...except when we'd ask our investigator a question, she'd respond...and we didn't know how to respond back...bahaha! But the third lesson was MONEY!! She's totes getting baptized!! ;)

Thank you so much for the package!! I actually received it on Saturday, but couldn't get it because the mail office place closed before I could get there. So I got it this morning after we went to the temple. :) Thanks SOOO much for the peanut butter, shorts, socks, and USB cord! So funny story, the USB cord isn't working on the MTC computers...so I don't think you'll be getting any pictures until I'm in France. Which, by the way, I leave to France on the 16th. It's one straight flight to Paris. :)

Um, so this week was tough for me. I got really homesick and really depressed and felt so alone. I finally just asked Heavenly Father to let me know that He is there and that He loves me. And just what I needed, I received a super encouraging letter from Tori Fawson. It was so supportive and totally made me feel so much better!! And then I got letter from Mommy and Jaret and that helped too! I'm doing so much better now. :)

Love y'all!!

-Elder Wilson

P.s. Keep sending those dearelders. I love getting letters!! :) they really help me a lot.

P.s.s. Will you and Daddy and Kaysen pray for me to have the gift of tongues three times a day? One of my teachers, Frere Saguibo, testified that if we pray for that three times a day, and ask our families do so as well, and we study faithfully, we'll be able to learn the language easier and quicker. So, please, help me out. :) thanks!! Je t'aime beaucoup!!

Au revoir!!

I Flirted With the Teacher

Mommy!! And ma famille. :)

 

Kaysen!! That's awesome!! Make sure you work hard. Oh and don't be afraid to slap anyone on the butt. It's natural ;)

 

Jaret, don't be lost without me!! Just...work out more?

 

That's sad to hear about dad's work. (It's a little stressful right now.) I had NO idea about that. Just remember to turn to Christ and He'll help you through it!

 

Okay so my P-day is Lundi (Monday). So that's your new favorite day of the week!! :) Um...my companion's name is Elder Hedquist. He's from Kaysville and ran cross country at Davis High. After the mission, he's running at BYU. He has a running scholarship. We went on a run during PPE (Personal Physical Exercise) and he...well, let's just say he's a beast of a runner. :D He has 6 siblings. An older sister, currently attending BYU, three younger sisters and two younger brothers.

 

August 15th is my departure date...to San Fran to get my Visa. Ha. I'm going to France September 17th.

 

My teachers...well the first few days, we had a temp and she didn't really give us much direction on how to study or plan or stuff, so my whole district goofed around a lot...my comp and I tried getting work done but didn't really know how or what to do. We got burned on Friday for being disruptive...because we didn't have a teacher. But Saturday, our first teacher came. Her name is Soeur Scott. She is really amazing!! Haha...so in French if you tu-toi someone (which is using the familiar form of "you") that is an authority figure or someone you don't know, it's like flirting with them...and we were using the verb etre, which means "to be." We were supposed to use the different conjugations for it and so we were just shouting out random things...and I shouted out Tu es blonde. Which means "you are blond." but...her face was PRICELESS!! I didn't mean to tu-toi her though...so basically, I flirted with the teacher. :P

 

The food...I'm gonna gain weight. I'm serious. I'm probably gonna gain like 10 or 15 pounds by the end of the 6 weeks. It's SOOO fattening. And there are doughnuts almost EVERY meal!! Don't worry, I'm getting sick of all the sugar though. It's disgusting!! I try to get une salade verte and a fruit every meal though. Oh...and the chocolate milk...it's AMAZING!! I love it!!! I've had chocolate milk for EVERY meal. I do get other drinks like water or powerade, but I always get my chocolate milk.

 

We have the early schedule...so breakfast STARTS at 6:30...and in order to be on time to breakfast, I get to wake up around 6. After breakfast we go to the classroom for french instruction. The teacher talks basically only in French. After that we have a little study time and then we go to lunch at 11. Then we have more instruction. Then we have dinner at 4. Then we go to classroom for study time/teaching which is where we teach an "investigator"...in french. It's HARD! But it's great. We have language study sometime too. Ha. Um...and lights out is at 10:30. I'm so tired from this schedule. I don't get enough sleep... :P it also doesn't help that one of the Elders in my room, Elder Diaz, has a watch that beeps around 3:53 every morning.

 

The first discussion we taught...was super awkward. There were so many awkward silences...it was great... :P but the second one went TONS better. I really felt the spirit so strong!!

 

About the Narnia Holes, a Narnia Hole is just any place that you could possibly hide something. I checked in every Narnia hole in our residence...NOTHING!! So my roommates, companion, and I are gonna put stuff in them all. I think there are like 4 Narnia Holes.

 

Do you remember that Liz Anderson girl that I met at the SNOW blast? Well, she wrote me a letter!! She totally digs me!! ;) Oh by the way, I LOVE getting letters...so you should put my address on Facebook so that the good-looking girls can write the good-looking soon-to-be-Frenchman. ;) But seriously. If you write me a letter, I can write back that night and you should get it in a couple days.

 

The letter you (mom) sent me about President Hinckley's mission was what I needed. I cried when I read it. I had had a terrible day that day (Friday) because that was the day we got chewed out...and my comp and I just were feeling so lost and discouraged. It totally helped me that night when I read it. The next day was TONS better!! :)

 

Well, au revoir!

Je t'aime. :)

 

-Elder Wilson

 

P.s. Ask me more questions. I love it!! :)

I Actually Made My Bed!

Bonjour Famile!

Comment vous allez vous? Ca va bien? (How are you doing? Are you doing well?)

The MTC is tres bien (very well) so far. It's only my first full day though!

My companion is Elder Hedquist. He's from Davis! He was a BEAST of a runner! He has six siblings: an older sister, two younger brothers, and three younger sisters. Elder Hedquist is a little shy, but he and I get along just fine. He's a smart guy. He enjoys listening and taking in lots of info. He also has a black hole for a stomach. Don't worry, though. He needs to gain some weight. #runnerproblems

The first day was AWESOME! Having Elder Winters as my host missionary was exactly what I needed. Seeing and talking to him helped me completely lose the nerves I was getting.

I didn't understand one word that was said  at the beginning of my first language class. It was scary! But as I opened my mind, I started picking up things I had learned from French class. JE VOUDRAIS ALLER A LA SALLE DE BAIN! (I would like to go to the bathroom!)

Well, love you lots! Pictures coming soon! By the way, I actually made my bed! Stay fly!

Elder Wilson

Setting Apart

Bryant was set apart as a missionary to serve in the France Paris mission on August 6, 2013, at 7:30 p.m. In the blessing, President Hale admonished you to leave the world behind. He promised that as you do, angels will be by your side. You will have people on both sides of the veil praying for him. You will be blessed with health and strength to do His work.

After the setting apart, Bishop Hutchins and the First and Second Counselor in the Stake Presidency were invited to share advice and counsel with Bryant.

Bishop Hutchins admonished you to pray fervently, like you've never prayed before. He also reminded you to leave everything behind. You don't need to worry about school, work, or girlfriends. He said that one of the adversary's greatest tools is discouragement, and he told you to not let discouragement take hold of you.

When you feel discouragement overcoming you, find a place to say an audible prayer. Bishop said that if you're not tired when you go to bed, then you're not working hard enough.

President Johnson reminded you to love the people, love the culture, love the country, love the food, love your companion, love your mission president, and love your mission. Let the people know you love everything about France. He said that you would find the people of France to be like M&Ms. They have a somewhat hard shell, but once you love them and hold them in your hand, they will melt in your hands.

President Vera said he's enjoyed watching you mature and grow up over the last year. He's watched you become more focused. He encouraged you to take that focus and now focus on sharing the gospel.

Finally, President Hale encouraged to go and have fun. Remember, the Gospel of Jesus Christ is joyful!

Wednesday morning before leaving for the MTC, Dad gave you a wonderful father's blessing. He encouraged you to focus your time and talents on your mission. He reminded you that we will be praying for you. You were blessed with the ability to learn the language faster than ever before by the Spirit and that you would not be afraid to open your mouth.

Called to Serve

video and copy of call