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

Wednesday, October 15, 2014

Comparison of Enseigner and le Seigneur

October 13, 2014

Hello family!!

It seems like all went well this past week.

For us here in La Rochelle, the week zoomed by!! Elder Godfrey and I were talking yesterday about how crazy it was. It was probably the fastest week in our missions.

Tuesday, we were supposed to do exchanges in La Rochelle after district meeting. Our district leader requested all the train tickets for us without first looking, so the total trajet time would have been about 4-5 hours for a trip that should only be 2 hours...so we stayed in Nantes for the exchange instead.

It's very interesting doing an exchange without a new pair of undies, a toothbrush, D.O. for the B.O., and a new pair of socks. We ended up buying new toothbrushes to use for the exchange. I was with Elder Tarbet, who is Elder Nielson's bleu. He was pretty cool and even though he had only been in Nantes for a week, we managed not to get lossed! That is a win! We ended up meeting someone in the street named Daniel and taught him about the Book of Mormon and prayed with him. It was pretty cool. And it was pretty cool to be with a new missionary to learn from him. Something I noticed about him was his humble willingness. He was so willing to go out and talk with people, even though proselyting by contacting and porting isn't the most efficient way to work, and he kept a great attitude despite the rejections.

Thursday was a pretty good day. Very interesting. So the Fitt's car broke down...and normally they would have taken us to the Swanepoel's...but they couldn't, so we ended up getting to buy last minute train tickets. We taught the Swanepoel's and that went very well. Elder Godfrey and I are super stoked for their baptism coming up. We taught them the last thing on the teaching record, fasting and honoring the law. After we talked about how there is opposition in all things and that opposition arises as we get closer to making covenants with God. We talked about that because they had been confronted by some anti-Mormon things online and were really concerned. We resolved their concerns then talked about opposition. Georgette said "the tallest trees catch the most wind." So true. I'm very thankful for the opportunity I've had to be in their lives and help them towards baptism and towards the temple.

Later we taught Mehdi about the Plan of Salvation. We just went through the Pre-earth life until the fall of Adam and Eve. Mehdi is a STUD! Seriously, one of the most intelligent people I've been privileged to meet and teach. He is progressing very well towards baptism. His sincerity to learn has really touched me. Also, he used to not really believe in Christ as the Savior of the world, but since we've been teaching him, he has grown a testimony of Christ. The Holy Ghost really does teach us truths.

That makes me think of back to Seminary, when I was going to early morning seminary with my friends back during sophomore year. Brother Baker always used many different names for Christ and for the Holy Ghost, one of which is Teacher. I find it really interesting in French, the word to teach is 'enseigner'. The Lord in French is le Seigneur. Very close to enseigneur. Cool right?

Back to Thursday. After our lesson with Mehdi we passed by Mbuta. Remember him? Elder Smith and I invited him to baptism and his first question was "Will I be naked?" Well, this rdv was very interesting as well. He let us in, plopped down on his coach, layed down, put his hands behind his head and confessed "J'ai fait la fête hier." as he groaned. (I partied last night.) We talked about Faith and repentance with him, and he was not really focused during the lesson because of his hangover. At the end, we asked him to pray, he started to pray, and then went to TOWN! He prayed for like 10 minutes. After the prayer, he jumped right up and was like "dang, that felt SO good!! I feel so much better now! When are you coming back, you coming back tomorrow night?" It was super interesting...ha.

And that was the week. It's interesting that it passed by so fast, because it was rather more of a finding week. Normally finding weeks seem to drag on, but this one just slipped by.

I'm glad to hear that everyone is doing well. I love you all!! Have a great week!

-Elder B. Stanton Wilson

P.s. Dad, could you please send me my line of authority? Thanks :)

Also, this year, while it's on my mind and since it's coming up soon-ish, for my birthday and Christmas, I don't really want any packages. I just want letters and money. It's fun to receive food and stuff, but I would prefer letters. :) The money is to replace shoes and such that have been ruined because of all the rain. See picture below. :)



An Instrument in His Hands

October 6, 2014

Salut la Famille!!

So, this past week was pretty cool.

Tuesday, we went and saw the Swanepoel's for Elder Smith to be able to get a picture and say good bye before he parted for Tours. They fed us a DELICIOUS lunch!! Seriously, it was so good. And I guess now I like butternut squash. Georgette made some...and it was SUPER great! We reviewed the Plan du Salut with them. They remembered it pretty well.

Wednesday, the Fitt couple picked us up around 7 and we went and dropped Elder Smith off at the gare. I then hung out with the Fitt's all day until my comp showed up. Sister Fitt made Pancakes for breakfast, she made around 15-20 pancakes. She at two, Elder Fitt at three...and they had me eat all the rest. We then went to the Church to help a lady clean the church. We got it done in an hour and 15 minutes, verses the 3 hours it would have taken her if she tried by herself. The Fitt's and I then went to a place called Celle-Sur-Bel which is east of Niort, to visit an ami. We taught him the first part of the Plan of Salvation, it went very well.

Elder Godfrey got in to La Rochelle around 15h30. We then took his stuff to the apartment and dropped it off, then went out contacting. Elder Godfrey had some incredible energy coming into La Rochelle. We contacted this old lady named Christian and shared some of the Restoration with her, then prayed with her. She didn't really want to learn more, though. But she did keep saying, "there's something different about you two. You're not like the rest of the youth. Your face just glows." It was a cool tender mercy to have met her. I hope we will have the opportunity to cross paths again.

Thursday, we taught our ami Mehdi. We talked about the Book of Mormon and invited him to read, he accepted. We gave him a baptismal date and he accepted as well. I really am so grateful for the opportunity that I've had to teach Mehdi. He is very sincere in his demarche to learn about the restored gospel. He came to General Conference this Sunday, many of his concerns were resolved in listening to the apostles and Prophet, as well as talking to the members of the ward. Mehdi definitely has been prepared.

We also taught the Less Active Mehdi. We talked about how he felt when he was at church. And we shared Helaman 5:12. It was a pretty great discussion. Mehdi is definitely coming back to church, every sunday he can.

Sunday was pretty great. So, for the schedule on General Conference, Saturday evening at 6 PM we watch the Saturday Morning Session live. Then Sunday Morning at 11, we watch the Priesthood session. 14h00 we watch Saturday Afternoon, then at 18h00 we watch the Sunday Morning session live. Then we are to fend for ourselves to watch the Sunday evening session.

Generale Conference was really cool this year. I saw Sister Potter, Sister and Brother Jensen, Tori Fawson, Breanna Eyre, Brother Dangerfield, my freshman photography teacher (Sister Autry), my calculus teacher (Brother Mouritsen), Sister Christensen (Anna's mom), Brother Bradfield, an old Swim coach (Kevin), Bishop, and you two!! Wow. And I have forgotten some others as well...but that was so cool to see you all on the télé!

I feel like General Conference just gets better and better each time. This time I really felt like the emphasis was on personal spirituality/testimony. It was a super great conference and afterwards, Elder Godfrey and I felt the spiritual power that came from it. As we worked for the last hour of the day, we were blessed.

We saw a guy in the street and contacted him. We were both overcome by the Spirit and were compelled to testify. The Spirit really took over, and we were as an instrument in His hands. We testified how He would have had us. Our contact wasn't too interested though. We both felt super great after that contact nonetheless. Because we had done our best. It was a really spiritual contact. Every contact should be like that.

We then started porting. We decided to just knock on the doors with lights on inside, since it was 20h00. We ended up frapping the port of a 19 year old Catholic, studying in La Rochelle. He let us in to show him how we pray and then to show us how he prays. We explained to him how we pray and then prayed. After he thanked us and said that was really cool. He then explained how catholics pray and then proceeded to recite 'Our Father in Heaven' and then did Mary's prayer (which is sung). It was really interesting. I am grateful for our knowledge of continued revelation though. I'm very glad I can express myself when I pray.

Well, I love you all! Thank you for the recipes!! :)


-Elder B. Stanton Wilson

Toilettes Episode 2

September 22, 2014

Hello Family!

This past week was a miracle week!! It was very difficult, but so worth everything.

The tone was first set last monday en faisant du Coeur-à-coeur (President Babin said that calling it Port-à-port is pessimistic, we should call it coeur-à-coeur which means heart to heart.) le soir. We "coeur'd" our way around this small town JUST outside of La Rochelle called Périgny. We ended up "coeur-ing" into this guy named José. He is from the Martinique and he is NORMAL!!! (inside joke with the Elders from Nantes. To explain, they have an ami named José...who has quite some problems/addictions that the Elders are helping with...and he kind of calls them 4+ times a day and asks rather bizarre questions. He's an interesting fellow.) So anyways, our José from the Martinique was rather skeptical of us and what we were doing, but agreed to pray with us. After the prayer, we asked him if we could share with him our message unique about Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, so he agreed and allowed us to come back the next afternoon. We passed by and he opened right up and let us in. We shared with him the Rétablissement until after the First Vision and invited him to pray about the First Vision. We also invited him to baptism. He told us that he isn't ready to be baptized and he assured him that we will help him prepare to be ready, we also assured him that he won't be baptized this week or next, but that over time, as he comes to know this is true, he'll be prepared to be baptized. He accepted the "soft invite." We are definitely blessed to have been led to José.

Tuesday, before we went to José's we passed by Waka (remember her?) because we hadn't seen her for quite some time. Well, I'll just say that Waka is so open that she's closed...the lesson didn't go super well. She asked us first if there is a modernized version of the Book of Mormon, and we just kind of gave her a blank stare, not really understanding what she was asking. Then she brought out her bible, which happens to be a modernized version of the bible. She said it's easier for her to read. Cool thing, Waka believes that the Book of Mormon is the word of God, but then she also stated that she wants to know if there are more books like that from other people and then she started talking about how every religion is good and is of God...we shared with her Ephesians 4:5 (in her modernized Bible) and asked her what her thoughts were. She answered that she didn't know. She then said that maybe it means that we need to become as one through our faith with God, then she added that it can mean anything though and we can't know what it really means because we are not the writer. That's the first time either of us have recieved an answer like that to such a franche scripture...we both just felt like the best thing to do would be to close the lesson with a prayer and leave in hopes that maybe someday, another set of missionaries will be able to help her.

Wednesday we had district meeting. It went kind of short. It was great!! That reminds me of a quote Elder Fitt shared with us a while ago, that is "Brevity is charm. That which is good, if short, is doubly good. That which is bad, if short, is not so bad." Think of that in the sense of duration of talks/meetings/etc. Although, despite the meeting itself being short, the meal was rather strange. An équipe brought cereal, another brought beef stroganouf, we brought kool-aid (something that one cannot find in Europe), another brought a green salad, and there was dessert as well. Cereal and noodles are definitely a weird combo together.

Friday a miracle happened as we were walking to go to a less active members house to pass by. As we were walking, a potential ami that had contacted us on a bus (haha, that rhymes!) named Mehdi crossed paths with us. He asked us if we had time to talk right now, so we found a bench and started to talk. We found out about his beliefs and did some How To Begin Teaching (see chapter 10 of Preach My Gospel. Kaysen, get familiar with that, you'll use it with everyone you meet!!) Mehdi is one of our younger amis, he's 27. He is also in a Country/Folk band. After we got to know him a little bit better, he asked us some questions about us and what we'll do after our missions. I told him I'm going to study music and that I have a voice scholarship. He asked if I could play him something the next time we meet and I told him if he brings his guitar, I'll show him a couple of songs. I feel super blessed to be able to have this occasion to do that. It's not very often that I get to play music. It's my dream, you know, to help someone get interested in the Gospel through music. We set up a follow up rdv with him for this week.

Saturday in doing some more Coeur-à-coeur we found a guy named Thierry who is from Calais, which is up north, even further north than Cherbourg. He let us in to pray with him and agreed to let us come back to share our unique message about Christ and the family unit. He'll be leaving back to Calais this Thursday, so maybe while he's there, he could possibly meet with the Elders up there. That would definitely be a tender mercy for them.

Sunday, after church, we felt like we needed to pass by a non active member named Mehdi. We've had no luck getting in contact with him for about the past six weeks, but we felt like we needed to pass by him again. So we did. And he was there!! Mehdi has some changes to make in his life, we shared with him Alma 7:11-13 and that really set the tone. The spirit was so strong and all that could be felt was His love. We let Mehdi know that we love him and that we're all waiting for him to come to church. And that the bishop can help him through the repentance process, and above all, that Christ and Heavenly Father are there for him. We set up another rdv with him for this Friday, we'll come by with the Ward Mission Leader so that Mehdi has a friend at church this sunday.

This week, we were truly blessed by the Lord. You know, Elder Smith said something the other night that really hit me hard. It was saturday night and he talked about how amazing the feeling was when we prayed with Thierry, I stated that I didn't really feel that same way. And he described why he felt that way. He said, "It feels good to play in a basketball game for me, and I'd love to play basketball, or even watch an NBA game. For you, you'd love to play music or soccer. These things all end though. But what we are doing now is eternal." That is so true. A song ends, a concert ends, a game ends, a sport season ends, school ends, and even a mission ends. But this work is Eternal. What we do here will have an Eternal effect.

So you may be wondering about the toilet thing for this week. Well, one night this week, after I was done pee-ing, I went to open up the bathroom door, as I moved my leg, it hit the toilet seat...and broke the hinge...so there is another one of Elder Wilson's Toilette Adventures. We have a new toilette seat now, just FYI. :) I may send you pictures next week, don't worry, the toilette is very clean. I am a professional toilette cleaner. :D

Well, I hope this next week goes well. This is our last week of the Transfer. We'll find out the deets this Saturday.

I love you all!!


-Elder B. Stanton Wilson

Elder Wilson vs. la Toilette

September 8, 2014

Hello Family,

So first off, for the scripture. No, I don't want that scripture. That's not my favorite one. Could you put Alma 26:27,31? Or if not, just verse 27?

This past week went by pretty well. It was rather long, but it was still super great. :) Tuesday we had a nice big zone conference in Angers. It was pretty cool. Everything was all about teaching and was directed at helping us improve our teaching. It was supposed to end at 3 but went 40 minutes over...but it went by pretty well.

Not too much happened during the week...until FRIDAY!! We just had a super magical day. We combined forces with the Lyon mission. We did an all finding day, with the goal to find 1000 new amis/leçons. We were instructed to stop every 30 minutes to do a prayer with our companions. It made finding a lot more spiritual and uplifting than it usually is. It was rather great! Friday seemed to fly by SO fast!! I was actually rather amazed. Usually an all finding day seems to go by a little longer than normal. We did have to opportunity that day to stop finding for a bit to help our ami, Sonia, move. It ended up taking 2 hours, but it was so rewarding. She was so grateful and then she even gave us the phone number of her little brother to "go and pray with him and share with him our message." So we have a potential ami thanks to the service opportunity that was given.

I have learned that some of the best missionary work we can do, members and missionaries alike, is service. Service really is the way to open one's heart. It not only opens those whom have been served, but those equally that are serving. As we serve each other, our hearts open to one another creating new, lasting friendships that are founded on a base of charitable love. Ammon is a super great example of this in the Book of Mormon.

Saturday, we had a rdv scheduled with Anne, but she texted and told us that she was sick. We offered to give her a blessing and she accepted. We went over there with a member named Pierre Nicolas. We explained what a blessing is and how it is performed. And then asked her what was the reason of the blessing. She explained to us what had happened, and all I will let you know is that she was wronged very maliciously by a friend. She then chose Pierre Nicolas to do the anointing and I to do the blessing. After the blessing she said she felt better. We then talked to her about her smoking problem and proposed to talk about the stop smoking program we have. She agreed to read over it and expressed that she has a desire to stop. We then let her know we would put into initiation the program the next time, and she agreed to that.

We were able to see Raphael this week as well, we shared with him Alma 34:32 and then ended up talking about the atonement and how that can help us in our lives. He still hasn't been able to give up his last 1.5 cigarettes yet, and I think we found out why. He expressed that he said it was him who had started smoking and who continues to smoke, so it must be him who stops. And that Christ can't be the one who makes him stop. We testified to him about the Atonement and the healing power it has to help us over come temptations and addictions in our life. And then we ended with a prayer (comme d'hab). I do honestly feel like the reason he hasn't been able to make this last step is pride. He seems to feel like it's all up to him. Which, in a sense is correct, it's up to him to choose. He can choose to rely on Christ and come to the realization that he can't quit without His help, or he can continue to struggle through this like he is. We are hoping we can help him through this.

So Church yesterday went pretty well. Although, during Sacrament meeting, the microphone was having troubles, so l'épiscopat just turned it off. Well, even though the microphone was off, almost everyone that came up and bore their testimony still adjusted the mic. Finally, a member came up to bare his testimony and started off by saying how funny it was that despite the fact that the microphone was off, everyone was still adjusting it. After, people still adjusted the mic, then would realize that it was off and would stop touching it. It was rather funny. I thought certain among you might enjoy that little experience there. :) 

So, I had quite an interesting experience yesterday. We went to the gare to check out train times to be able to plan when we can go to Niort this week (the Fitt couple will be in Britagne all week doing apartement checks...so we're on our own this week.) and to find train times to go see the Swanepoels. Well, while we were there, I had to go...pretty bad. And they have this bathroom that is in the corner. It basically looks like a big wooden box. I had never used it before though. So since I had to go so bad, I decided to try it out. I walked in and locked the door, found a place to hang my bag when I started to notice. This bathroom stinks. But not like a bathroom...It smelled like a very clean chicken coop. Then I realized there wasn't a place to wash my hands...and then I looked in the toilet. The bowl was a plastic bag that had cedar chips in it...then I saw a dispenser that had cedar chips and a scooper to use. I wasn't sure if I should still use it or not...so I did anyways. I sat down, then I saw a sign that explained what in the world this odd toilet is. It's a dry toilet!! Made to save water. These toilets save 20,000 liters of water per year. What you do is, you do your buiseness, then you scoop enough cedar chips to cover your mess and leave it clean for the next person. Luckily, after I was done, I did see a hand santizer dispenser and used it. Very odd experience. I'll include the pictures I took. :) Just so you can really get the jist of this experience. :)






And that was basically the week here in La Rochelle. As for transfers, they were 3 weeks ago. So the next one will be in 3 weeks. The Wednesday right before General Conference. Elder Smith and I both think that I'll be transferred away...since there have been no missionaries in our mission that have served more than 2 transfers together. But we will find out in 3 weeks. Ha.

I love you all!! :)

-Elder B. Stanton Wilson

By the way, quick note, I got word from the Pettitt Family in Cergy. Dominique got her mission call!! She's going to Frankfurt!! How cool is that?

An Inspired Question

September 1, 2014

Salut, la famille!!

I'm glad that everyone is doing well. :) It's always great to hear good news from everyone. Bah, quoi de neuf?

This past week passed very well. Tuesday was district meeting. Our new district leader is Elder Nielson, from Tremonton. He came from being in the office for six months. Whew, I'm glad that wasn't me. He gave really great formation. At the beginning he had us teach someone a principle of the gospel, using only clay. It was rather tough. It was really cool though!

We then did exchanges with Elder Nielson and his comp Elder Cutshall in Nantes. I was with Elder Cutshall. We ended up having quite some bad luck haha, but it's all good. We went to someone's appartment for a rendez-vous we were supposed to have, but they weren't there. So we had a ratez-vous. (the verb rater [pronounced like rat-ay] means to miss. Ratez-vous isn't really a French term, it's an old missionary term that Elder Smith and I are trying to get other people to use as well. We heard it from someone who served in the Paris mission about 30 years ago.) Then for our second rendez-vous we were supposed to have, we got on the wrong tram to get there and would have gotten to the guy's house too late, so they rescheduled for the next day.

I was quite thankful that Elder Smith is my companion though. And I was also quite happy to get back to our own secteur to work. :)

Thursday, we went and saw the Swanepoel family. Things are rather difficult with them. Bokke has quite the crazy schedule with rugby and won't be able to come to church for a while, and since they only have one car, Georget isn't able to come with the kids to church. Although they are still progressing! We asked how quitting coffee was going, Georget is having troubles, Bokke said that it's no problem for him and then looked at Georget and said, "it'll be a lot easier for her once all our coffee is gone, because we will not buy anymore." with a super sly grin. When we go to see them this week, the coffee should be all done with, so that's super great!! :) We will be fixing a baptismal date with them this week.

There is this other ami that we were miraculously able to get in contact with a couple weeks ago, her name is Sonia. She is African. She will be moving to Orléans, which is the last area Elder Smith served in. We saw her yesterday and actually fixed a baptismal date with her. She will be getting baptized in Orléans though. It's been super great to have been able to meet with her. She has such great faith, and she doesn't forget about the commitments we give her. :)

We met with Raphael on Friday and talked about the Divinity. He kind of understood...his big problem is he feels like to believe that God, Christ, and the Holy Ghost are three different beings is like being polytheistic. We assured him that we are monotheistic and then we read in the Guide des écritures about God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost. I think that helped him understand a lot better. We then shared with him Mathew 3:13-19 (I think it's to 19). It's when Christ gets baptized and the Holy Ghost descends in the form of a dove. And God the Father says "this is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." His eyes lit up after reading those verses. We then asked him about more concerns he has, and apparently, he has a concern about the law of Chastity. He said that it's against human nature. He also doesn't like that fact that people can get excommunicated, he feels like that's against the love of Christ. He also stated that he didn't agree with excommunication nor the law of chastity in the Catholic church either. But good news is, he is still trying to quit smoking. He still can't seem to give up that last one and a half, but he claims he is making efforts. If only he wasn't so stubborn, and just follow the 7 day program, he'd have quit already.

We went porting last night and we ported into an old couple. At first, the wife talked for a bit but wasn't interested, then she started talking about her family, then she told us again she wasn't really interested to pray with us. Then, Elder Smith asked her, "we were wondering what there is to do around La Rochelle, could you give some ideas of some things we can do tomorrow?" She went into her house, door still opened, to look for something, then let us come in. She offered us each a beer, to which we replied that water would be fine. Her husband then came and started talking to us. We talked with them (or, rather, listened to them) for about an hour. Then before we left we asked if we could leave them with a prayer and they both agreed. It was super cool. I strongly feel like Elder Smith's question, though not really missionary nor gospel related, was inspired.

And that was our week this week. :) I hope you all have a great week!

I love you all!

-Elder B. Stanton Wilson

Parables: A Lesson in Taking Good Notes in Seminary

August 25, 2014

Hello family!

This week went pretty well. It was a little long, but it was still pretty great.

Good news!! This week nobody was sick! Yay!! Although, not too much happened this week...sorta.

We taught Raphael with a member this week and talked about making decisions, because he's been taught everything...he just needs to make a decision. We'll that's what we thought. He opened up quite a bit and told us some of his concerns. Apparently, he's still having troubles with the Book of Mormon. He has studied TONS of history, and apparently nowhere else is there any record of people in Jeruselam going to the America's. But his biggest concern is the Divinity. He was born Catholic, so he believes in the trinity...he has troubles understanding how God, Christ, and the Holy Ghost can be three different beings, to him, that sounds like multiple gods. So we found out that we have some great work to do. I'm just super glad that he opened up that much. Also, his smoking hasn't gotten worse, but it's been hard for him.

We taught the Swanepoel's twice last week. On Tuesday, we talked about tithing. Cool miracle with that, they were definitely prepared!! The night before they read in the bible about tithing. They accepted everything very well. And we went over the Word of Wisdom again with them because they drink coffee. They committed to stop, so they're on the way of stopping. It's easy for Bokke, but for Georget, she really enjoys her coffee. It was always a family thing that she did growing up, and so it's tough for her to break the habit. But she said she'll work on it.

Then Saturday, we taught them with the bishop and his wife. Elder Smith and I got to do a Tour de France to get to the Swanepoel's home. The Fitt couple wasn't available to come with us, so we ended up taking a 45 minute train to Niort, then a 45 minute bus to Fontenay. We talked about the 10 commandments and obedience. They accepted everything very well. Then after the bishop and his wife took Elder Smith and I to McDo. Haha! It was pretty great. They then dropped us off at Luçon so we could take a train from there back to La Rochelle. I think that was the most I've been around my area during my whole mission.

Speaking of areas, fun fact, the La Rochelle ward is 3,000 square miles! Not kilometers, but miles. WOW!! :)

Saturday night we went to visit Anne. She told us that she was too tired...and we just kinda looked at her like we weren't going to take that for an answer...then she let us know that she had been drinking and drank too much. And she was holding a cigarette behind her, trying to hide it from us...so I guess we have some work with her to do. I hope we can be the missionaries Father in Heaven would have us be so that we can help her out.

Sunday, a visiting member brought a non member to church!! And she is super interested in learning about the "mormon" church. She lives about 1 hour away from La Rochelle. She really enjoyed church though and the Word of Wisdom in Amis' class didn't scare her away either!! In fact, she's willing to stop drinking tea and coffee!! I feel so blessed to be here right now.

After church, the Fitt's had invited us over because...it was ELDER SMITH'S BIRTHDAY!!! He's 20 now, dang he's old. I think he might kick the bucket soon!! ;) I made him buttermilk pancakes for breakfast that morning (just for dad, POOF, he's pancakes!) Sister Fitt made Chicken Parmesan with Marinara sauce. And a salad with choices of Ranch or Italian dressings!!!!! (Unheard of in France!!) And for desert, a no-bake cheese cake that was SO good!!! I definitely profited from Elder Smith's birfday. He said that his birthday was one of the best he's ever had, too! (He received a SUPER gift from his family but the thing that was the best for him was that his father had asked almost every family in the ward to write something to him, and they put all of that in the package with quite a bit of other stuff.) It was really cool to see Elder Smith that happy. I felt happy just seeing how happy he was, it was a nice change.

Sunday right after church (before we got to the Fitt's apartment) I was asked to give a talk in church of "La force des paraboles dans les écritures, en particulier, celles du Christ." (Vous avez tout compris?) Or in English: "The strength of Parables in the scriptures, in particular, those of Christ." Luckily, I'll be giving the talk on the 14th so I have time to prepare. So I'm going to be reading Christ's parables for the next little while to be able to do this talk. I'm so thankful for seminary and the notes that I took in my scriptures!! I definitely will profit from them for life. I was reading over the Parable of the Sower in Matt 13 this morning, and the notes I took will definitely help me with this talk.

Later, we taught this guy named Mbata, who is basically an eternal investigator (he's met with missionaries back even when he lived in the Congo...he's been in France since about 2006), but he does have potential. We talked to him about baptism and authority and he asked some questions to us to make sure he understood everything. One of the things he asked us was how is the baptism done. So we explained that it is done by immersion, meaning going all the way under water, then coming back up. He then asked, "Will I be naked?" Elder Smith and I had to use our poker faces there...bahaha!!! We let him know that he would be wearing all white clothes, and that he would not be naked. It was pretty funny.

And that's the week. :)

Thank you so much for the Sheet music!! I'm very glad you liked the letter.

I love you all!!

-Elder B. Stanton Wilson

P.s.

Kaysen to get the music from the iPod to the computer, first you need to put the iPod in the computer, then after that, pull up the files like you would for a USB drive (it can't be done through iTunes). Then you need to make hidden folders/files shown (you can search on the microsoft website on how to do that). Then copy the folder iPod_control onto the computer and voila, you have the music on the computer. I can't believe I still remember all that. Oh là là!