A Week Full of Miracles

Hello all!!

 

To start off, this week is transfers!! And guess who's NOT leaving? Elder Wilson ni Elder Wallace!!! I have truly been blessed to be able to stay here in Cergy a 4th transfer to finish training. I am so excited! And the new elder that will be coming in is an old Assistant, Elder Dussere (francophone), so the rest of us (les americans) will profit (do you say that in english?) from that! :)

 

This past week was full of miracles. I'd like to share a couple with you.

 

Tuesday, we had a lunch rendez-vous with a member named Jonathan Vasseur. We were to meet him at the church building and then he was going to take us to his house to eat and share a spiritual thought. Elder Wallace and I decided to walk to the church building (5 minute train ride and then after that another 15 minute walk) instead of taking the bus to try and find some people on the way to contact. While walking we found a mother from the Congo named Mamie (in french, mamie is the familiar form of grandmother, by the way) and we were able to exchange numbers and fix a rendez-vous for the next day. The next day, the rendez-vous was so great. We shared a message about the resurrection of Christ and the hope it gives us. We gave her a Plan du Salut pamphlet and fixed another rendez-vous, which also went well (we talked about the first part of the Plan du Salut and introduced Le Livre de Mormon) and we'll have another with her this week here.

Why is this a miracle? Because if we had decided to take the bus, like normal, we wouldn't have met. We wouldn't have been able to have the chance to talk to her about the Book of Mormon. And also, because Mamie told us that she has been longing to have someone to talk to about God and Christ. In the Congo, you can talk to anybody about religious matters, but France is completely the opposite. She was super grateful that we met and will continue to meet.

 

Saturday, we were waiting to meet a member outside of a gare (train station) to go to a lesson. While we were waiting, a guy from Poland approached us and tried speaking to us...but since his English and French is so limited (he can say his name and where he is from...c'est tout, en fait.) we didn't understand a word he said. (Polish is a russian type language with a profound latin influence...but is still basically impossible for one to understand unless they speak a language like Russian or some other slovic language) he made a call on his phone and handed the phone to us...it was the missionaries from Poland. The missionary we talked to was Elder Russel Wilson...what? Yeah. So we told him the details about our church meetings and he translated them to the Polish guy. Sunday, the Polish guy came to church with us. Here's the miracle. There is a member in our ward that hasn't come to church since I've been in Cergy. He speaks Russian and Ukrainian. For the first time in quite some time, he was able to come to church. On the very same day the Polish guy came. That was definitely a tender mercy.

 

Training has been such a wonderful experience for me. I've been trying hard to make sure that the way this équipe (companionship) goes, is like a team (équipe directly translates as team). I didn't want it to be like "I'm your trainer, so I'm going to give you all this knowledge and we're going to do everything I want to do." And so it's been like un vrai équipe. Which has given both Elder Wallace et moi le capacité d'apprendre plus ensemble et travailler le plus efficace.

 

Something that Elder Wallace and I have REALLY been trying to do is to work with the members. We've been having SO much more success when we go out and see the members than when we just try finding by ourselves. And as long as we contact everyone on the way to the members' houses and inbetween lessons, all is well. We have just as much success, if not more, when we do that instead of going out porting/contacting for couple hour blocks. And it also gives us more of a purpose, too. I've really learned alot this transfer.

 

For my Scripture for my missionary plaque, I've found the scripture I want. If I could I'd just put up Alma 26 on it, but I've decided that Alma 26:27,30-31 will suffice. Alma 26 is a parallel to la mission Française de Paris. 27 describes a little promise that the Lord has given us. I know that as I am patient, the Lord will bless me and lead me to those he has prepared for me. 30 (mostly 28-30. 30 Summarizes 28-29 though) shares a little of what I've gone through "have suffered every manner of affliction" (something close to that) And also 30 states the why of the mission. That I "might be the means of saving some soul". And 31 shares the blessings I've recieved. When I look back at the "fruits of my labor". I know that I haven't brought anybody into the waters of baptism yet, but I do know that I have helped others and had an effect on them. And I have also changed much myself. <-- I don't know if that all makes sense, but it makes sense and has spiritual and emotional meaning behind it for me.

 

I love you so much! Thank you so much for your support. Also thank you for your paragraph to me, mom. I'm so blessed to be your son. It made me cry out of love. I think the mission is making me a crier. Oh well, if that's what happens when I feel loved, I'll take it. :)

 

Also, thank you dad for your email. It means a lot that you sent me an individual email. I love you so much.

 

Stay Fly

 

-Elder B. Stanton Wilson

 

P.s.

So I've been thinking a lot. I noticed that the temple work for Walter Stanton Wilson and his wife weren't completed (at least according to the family tree I printed out before my mission) and I was thinking that If that is true, that it should be done. And I'd like to find out more about him so that I could possibly do his work for him after I get back. But I have no means of doing that on most of the computers I use here because they're outdated and can't run the familysearch website. Could you possibly look into that? Also, could you send me my line of Authority? I didn't get a copy before I left, and I'd love to see that, to know with a surety who it is that my Priesthood Authority comes from. :) Thank you so much.