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