Contact Info

You can mail a letter to Elder Wilson in the PARIS FRANCE mission at dearelder.com or through the postal service:

Elder B. Stanton Wilson
49 Rue Marengo
72000 Le Mans
France

The mission home address is:
France-Paris Mission
23, rue du Onze Novembre
78110 Le Vesinet
France

Monday, February 24, 2014

Le Louvre and being directed by the Spirit

Hey famille!

This past week was alright. Some good things happened!! And had lots of time in the appartement, too. But here is the first bit of good news:

First, my comp, his toe. Well, we went to a podologue (foot doctor) for more help. Good news is, his ingrown toenail has been taken care of. The question was though, why isn't it healed yet? (words of the doctor) ha. Well, it's because his toe was getting moisture from quoi que se soit (anything at all) and wasn't able to heal. So he gave my comp some things to help with that, and apparently, it's working. Bad news, when it rains, can't go out. If he starts to feel pain, we gotta stop. The doctor kept on saying "no choc" (no shock). So now, we're able to go out and about. :) ha

Okay, so in terms of our ami with the baptismal date. His name is Pritish. Right now the baptism will be on the 22nd of March. He has some personal things back in India to finish before the baptism, and so that's why it'll be a while. In the meanwhile, he's doing so well! We're teaching him 2 times a week with a member and he's been coming to church every week thus far. I really hope I'll still be in Cergy when he gets baptized. Transfers are next week...and sadly, I've been feeling like my time in Cergy is finished. But we'll see what happens.

A cool story from the past week, we were able to get out porting on Friday (after we had the rdv with the Doctor) and we went out to a place called Andrésy. While there, we went a way I've never been before. Then we found a street and said, "well, we can start here." We started walking to the end of the street to port down back to the main road and as we walked past a particular house, I felt impressed to knock there. I told Elder Young, "Hmmm, let's start here. This feels good at this house." He kinda just shrugged it off and said "we have like 4 more houses. Let's just start at the end. We'll get to it." So we did that. Only one of those four answered, and they didn't want anything to do with us...ha. BUT when we got to the house I felt impressed to start with, a guy answered the door and started talking to us. We told him why we were there and what we were doing. He told us that he is sick now, but he'd love for us to come back to teach him. It was super cool! And so we'll be making another visit out to him. Nobody else on that street was interested. I know that we were led to that particular house to find that man.

So that's really all that happened last week. Today for P-day we went to Le Louvre. I definitely want to go back to see more stuff. But at the same time...it was a little weird seeing...um...I'll just say, seeing everything. :) haha. Here's pictures for you guys. :)

I love you so much!! :)


-Elder B. Stanton Wilson



Monday, February 17, 2014

Splits with Elder Johnson

Chers Famille!

Comment allez-vous?

This past week was pretty good. And pretty hard. It's tough being stuck in the apartment. Although, we are able to get out for Rendez-vous (if and when we can get ahold of amis) and get out for about 1 or 2 hours of finding...if it's not raining. I JUST WANT TO GO OUT FINDING!! Like seriously...I hear all this talk from quelques autres missionnaires that they hate finding. I love it. It's so fun to talk to new people!! (And it's also super funny when you get into awkward situations, too...haha) Honestly, I don't know how missionaries could NOT like to find. I like finding almost more than I like teaching lessons (not really, I like them the same. :D ).

So the baptism didn't go through...because he has a friend that lives in Grenoble (that's in the Lyon mission) that he wants to baptize him. (His friend is the person that introduced him to the Church.) So we're moving the baptism to the 15 of March for his friend's convenience (because our ami wants to be baptized by him) and also to go over the lessons and to make sure there aren't any problems with WoW and that "C" law. I'm super stoked...but I'm feeling like I will be transferred away before then. Transfers are in like two weeks!! Crazy right?

We had splits this past Saturday. I was with Elder Johnson, the bleu. He's a super chill dude and just ready to try his best on everything! He's super cool! We started the day off by doing service for someone!! We helped someone move out. It took about an hour, so that's pretty fast. And then we went back to the apartment to eat lunch and do the 12 week program (for him.) After that we did some contacting. Had dinner. And set out to go porting. While porting, we ported into someone that told us to come back another time. And also we ported into an older lady (that was pretty hard to understand) that told us if we ask another question she'll call the police...ha. I should really get my hearing checked... ;) just kidding.

Yesterday, after church was over a family invited us over. It was the best meal I have ever had. I've kind of been really trying to observe others to see how their situation is, and I've noticed for a while that this family has been having a little bit of a tough time. They served us Chop Suey (I don't know how to spell it. Sorry!) and it was seriously so amazing! They always are just giving so much. It really touched me yesterday.

Oh, you remember a couple weeks ago I had diarrhea? Well this week guess what I had? Constipation. The pooping problems never end! Haha, it's okay though. I'm still constipated, but I'm doing what the doctor told me to do. :) gotta love all bran. And something funny about this stuff, I had a dream last night that I pooped. And it was healthy. I woke up this morning and thought I really had...but then I realized, ha joke's on me. That was just a dream! bahaha!

I love you all!! Sorry I didn't have much to say this week. :P

-Elder B. Stanton Wilson

Monday, February 10, 2014

Fasting Works

2/10/14

Hey Family!!

Sounds like all's well for you all. :) 

So um, Happy Valumtimes Day. Tines, tines, tines! (Jaret will get it. #TeenGirlSquad)

Okay, alors, the toe of my companion is making progress!! We had a rdv (rendez-vous. Ha, I'm getting the French text language DOWN!) avec the Docteur this past Mercredi pour voir comment va his toe. It is no longer infected!! Now it's scarred and is healing. So that's great news!! We're able to pick up the work, slowly. If his toe hurts, we gotta take a break. Also if it rains, we can't go out. :P Cherbourg taught me to love the rain...buh tant pis pour moi. :P

We did have a cool rdv with the Docteur though. He asked us who we are after he was done looking at the toe and stuff. (He speaks English BTW's. He LOVES speaking English.) So we told him that we're the Mormons. GREAT ANSWER TO HIS QUESTION!! :D The first thing he said is "YOU GUYS DO GENEALOGY!! Right? Can you help me out?" So we gave him the number for the genealogy office somewhere in the region of Paris. We also told him our proper name, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, so he asked why others call us Mormons. We taught him about the Book of Mormon. He asked us if he could borrow the one we showed him (which was in his native language, French!) and of course we said, "You can keep it. It's yours." He got SUPER excited and said "You have to write something in it. Both of you. For souvenir" (souvenir means "to remember". Basically what he meant is to remember us.) So we did. And when we gave it to him he said "I promise you, I will read it!" Seriously, that was a cool miracle! Even when we have rdv's with the docteur, we STILL get opportunities to share the gospel.

So fasting works. Like really. Yesterday, I fasted. I was getting pretty discouraged with the work. We were doing what we could with the circumstances we had. But it was pretty discouraging. Every call/text we did just resulted in "I'm too busy right now." Or "I'm too busy this whole week. And next week." Pretty upsetting...well, Yesterday, I basically pulled an Elder Murray from The District. I fasted so that we could have a baptism. And so that we could find new amis. After church was over and we were waiting for the buses to come to take us back to Cergy, (we meet in the St. Ouen building for l'instant a cause de notre building being under renovation.) singing in the choir. As we started, we received a call from Pritish, telling us that he wants to get baptized. Next Sunday. And so now we'll be seeing him like 3 or 4 times this week to make sure he's ready and make sure he understands everything. Seriously, miracles happen. God lives and hears our prayers. He answers our prayers.

I'm sorry I don't have more to say. Today I'll be baking though! :D I'm making brownies and a chocolate pie for district meeting for tomorrow. :D #stoked ;)

That's super funny about the trololo guy's music in the opening ceremony of the Olympics!! Haha. Too bad it probably wasn't the original performer, Edward Khil. He died January of 2012, or 2013. I don't remember which year. Ha. :P

Happy Valumtimes day! And mommy, I'm so sorry!! J'ai completement oublié à propos de ton anniversaire! J'espère qu'il était bien! (P.s. You're old now, too. ;) haha! Just kidding)

I love you all! Thank you for all your prayers. It means tons to me! Always remember the hand of the Lord in your life.

-Elder B. Stanton Wilson

Diarrhea Since Easter

2/3/14

Hey Family!

Sounds like all went well with the superbowl! Haha just kidding...too bad the Bronco's didn't win huh?

Well this week was pretty tough work-wise. We weren't able to get out and do very much work because Elder Young's terrible toe. We were able to get out though! Yay!! haha.

We weren't able to see Francoise this week. She cancelled the rendez-vous and then she later told us that she's not in the Parisien Area. But she'll be back in like 15 days, alors on va attendre pour le jour quand elle reviens.

This week we were able to see this guy named Rodolph. On a fait le contact avec lui dans la rue, il y a une semaine. When we first contacted him, he told us he had never heard du Livre de Mormon, but that he'd like one to read...now this is the catch to all of it, he then told us that he can't read French. And that he's not so great at reading English. So we asked him what language he can read in. He replied "Tamil." It's some language from South India, apparently. We were able to find a Book of Mormon in his language and then we met with him. We weren't able to have a legit lecon because he didn't have time, but he did say that if we wanted, we could set up some rendez-vous with him in the future. I'm pretty stoked!! :)

We saw lots of members this week. We ate at 3 different members' houses. It was all pretty good. Although, I definitely think I'm getting fat. Not gaining weight fat, but my muscle is turning into pudgy fat. :P Oh also, one of the member's we ate with, la Famille Louima, they're haitian. I've ate over there quite a few times. Soeur Louima always gives us some awesome Haitian food, which is like rice with some meat/veggie sauce that has TONS of cloves in it. This last time though, I think there were more parts of the cow than I've ever eaten before...and that night (Saturday night) let's just say that "I had diarrhea since Easters." Church was fun with that little problem. :D haha. But now, I'm just fine.

Haha, well, I'm hoping this week we can get out more. Elder Young has to go to another Doctor for his toe...I'm hoping for some good news. On verra.

I love you all!

Kaysen, keep ballin' it up! :)


-Elder B. Stanton Wilson

Transfer #4

1/20/14

Hey family!!

Sounds like you had a really exciting week. :) I'm stoked to see how the 4 wheeler turns out!

We always use public transit. There aren't very many villes that use cars. So if I do get to drive a car, I'll tell you. :) Cherbourg used to have a car, but the year before I came in, a couple missionary came in and got the car. Cergy is in the Parisian area, and so we have a NAVIGO for all five zones which can get us to anywhere in the Parisian area. (There are 5 zones in the Parisian area...Cergy is in zone 5.)

This past week was really good. We have transfers this week! And guess who gets a new companion!! :P Elder Wilson does. I'm staying at Cergy though. Elder Kendall is going to Metz...which is right by Luxembourg. I'm starting to think that my companions don't like me...ha. I'm starting transfer 4 and getting my 4th companion...haha c'était une blague. :)

Um..so we received a referral from a dude that lives in Lyon for his friend named Simone. We passed Simone a visit and she is SUPER! She loved the message of the restored gospel AND she said she'll come to church this next Sunday!! :D

Also, we contacted a guy in the street named Ives. (sounds like Eve. Not Eevz) We were able to set up a rendez-vous with him. Well, we went to his house and he was all like "Oh man, I completely forgot! Come in, we'll still talk." We found out that he lives with his sister who is like in her 30's. We were able to teach them both about the restoration...and we have another rendez-vous with them le samedi prochain. I'm stoked!! It's pretty exciting, this work that's going on!! :)

I'm seriously so glad I chose to serve a mission. It's been one of the best things so far! I'm lovin' it! I can't believe it's been about 6 months already. I feel like I just graduated from shool (yes, :D
shool) yesterday.

Well, I love you all! Have a great week!! :)

-Elder B. Stanton Wilson

A SUPER Week!

1/13/14

Hey Famille!

This past week was SUPER!! Seriously, it's weeks like last week that make everything worth it.

Now, I'm not gonna lie, this transfer has been so hard. Not because of my companion, I love Elder Kendall, but because we've been working so hard to find new people to teach. Every day we've been going out finding. But every day we've gotten back to the appartement with just been rejected all day...everyday until last week!!

Last week, on Monday, we received a call from someone who apparently met with the missionaries in the past. She was having some troubles with something that we didn't quite understand, so we went over to her house the next day, and she vented to us about someone she works with...we testified tons and tried helping her, I finally shared a scripture with her in Alma (I forgot the reference) but it talks about the word "restoration." After we read the scripture she was like "oh, I feel good now. I think I should go talk to her and resolve the problem." ha...

But then on Tuesday night, we were contacting at the Prefecture and we met a Haitian woman. We were able to teach her about the restoration and give her a book of Mormon. She didn't want to give us her contact information, so we gave her ours and she said she'd call when she has questions.

Wednesday afternoon, we contacted a guy and were able to teach him about the Restoration also. And gave him a Book of Mormon. And we'll be following up with him today. :)

We did splits this past saturday, I was with Elder Ireland. We were supposed to have three lessons, but everyone fruged us. We went to a baptism in Versailles for a little 8 year old boy in our ward, while the other equipe stayed in Cergy. That's the first baptism I've seen on my mission so far!! :) The missionaries didn't have any part in his baptism. The family had invited the missionaries to come...so we went to support him and the ward.

This past Sunday, the missionaries sang a musical number with the Famille Pettitt (the DMP and his family). We did Homeward Bound. In French. It was so beautiful and the spirit was so strong! Apparently the last time missionaries in this ward did a musical number, it wasn't...so...beautiful...and so the musical number yesterday redeemed the missionaries...ha :) It was so fun to share that talent with the ward. :)

It's so amazing how the Lord blesses us. We were definitely blessed this week. After persisting for 4 weeks with rejection after rejection, after being patient, and just as we started getting discouraged, the Lord blessed us. I'm so lucky to be here serving as a missionary in La Mission Française de Paris. I know that I was called of God to serve here. Je sais que c'est eglise est vrai.

I love you all!


-Elder B. Stanton Wilson

Frog Legs & Francis Chopin

1/6/14

Hey family!!

Okay so this week...New Year's Eve and New Years!!

New Year's Eve was pretty fun. We did work like normal and then at 5, we were supposed to stop proselyting. We went to a member's house to eat dinner that night. They took us out to a Chinese restaurant. We went to a little Chinese buffet called Le Pousse-Pousse. We ate tons of Chinese food. And they had some cuisse de grenouille. Frog legs. So I decided to try them...and let's just say that I'm not too big of a fan of grenouille. It wasn't bad. But it was very much...like eating meat-flavored rubber...ha.

New Year's Day was basically the same as Christmas: we spent all day at a member's house. We went to the famille Louima's house. They are Haitian, so I got to try some awesome Haitian cuisine. It's pretty good stuff! :) very strong in spices, especially cloves.

So as far as work goes, Elder Kendall and I go finding every day, still looking for new people to teach. It's pretty tough, but the Lord blesses us. Just yesterday we went contacting before church and met a guy who wants to learn more. We're pretty excited. We have a rendez-vous with him on Wednesday!!

With the reference from the Lyon mission, we were able to have one rendez-vous with him and that's it so far. He's pretty golden. He wasn't able to come to church this week, but he told us he'll be there next week, so we're definitely praying for that!

I'm doing better. My ear infection has healed and I'm not so stuffed up anymore. Elder Kendall isn't sick either. :) His chicken pox are done for good. 

Today for P-day we went to a cemetery.  :) I got to see the grave of the famous Francis Chopin. It was...pretty lively ;) 

Well, I love you all! Hope all goes well with the sewing machine.

-Elder B. Stanton Wilson


Here's me at the Eiffel Tower!! :)


The Family Pettitt

12/30/13

Hey family!!

This week was pretty good. Christmas was pretty weird. It was weird to see all of you...ha. I've just gone so long with just emails that actually hearing your voices and seeing you felt really weird...ha. This Christmas was pretty much my favorite Christmas of my life. It was so awesome to spend the whole day with the Family Pettitt. They're legit. We also (we as in ALL the missionaries in my mission) had permission to watch a Disney movie on Christmas...and so we ended up watching Mulan. Not in French. In English (because the family Pettitt speaks english, french, german, and spanish.) It was really weird...and cool. Basically I have the whole movie memorized and was quoting it as it went along...hehe

So along with this week being good...it was also really hard. Elder Kendall and I got discouraged this week. We felt like we were doing everything we could...but not getting the results we really wanted...and then we recieved a referral from the Lyon mission for a guy named Pritish. Like British, but with a P. He is from India. We were able to meet him on Saturday...and...oh my goodness, talk about a missionary's dream!! He knows all of the doctrine that we teach already. He feels like he needs to get baptized soon, too!! Isn't that awesome?! I almost died when he said that to us!! He also does have some questions about how he can really know if his prayers are being answered and stuff like that, though. We're going to continue to meet with him and hopefully help him come unto Christ through baptism. I'm super excited!!

So, today I went to le Tour Eiffel et L'Arch de Triomphe. And I can't send the photos...but I will eventually. :D

And that was my week since Christmas. Sorry it's not so long! There's not many details. I added as much as I can.

Love you!


-Elder B. Stanton Wilson

Monday, February 3, 2014

Christmas

December 25, 2013

Skype is seriously the best thing ever! Elder Wilson looked happy! It was so fun to see his crazy personality come out, since it doesn't come out so well in his letters. He's a nut, and we love him so much!